Live Action Avatar Episode Count Revealed By Uncle Iroh Actor Paul Sun-Hyung

I’m going to be honest: Netflix’s live-action Avatar the Last Airbender doesn’t seem to be that bad. The cast is AMAZING (Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai?? A Team Avatar where the actors and actresses are actually representative of their nations??). We also know that Elizabeth Yu (All My Love) will play Princess Azula, Maria Zhang will play Suki, Yvonne Chapman (Family Law) will play the legendary warrior Avatar Kyoshi, Tamlyn Tomita (Cobra Kai) will play Suki’s mother Yukari, and Casey Camp-Horinek (Reservation656 Dogs) will play Gran Gran, the matriarch of the Southern Water Tribe, and Katara and Sokka’s grandmother. Other members of the supporting cast include Ken Leung (Lost) as Commander Zhao and Lim Kay Siu (Nightwatch) as Gyatso. Last, but not least, we have Paul Sun-Hyung, who is cast as Uncle Iroh, but who also has the latest update on the live action Avatar episode count! What did Sun-Hyung say about Netflix’s live action Avatar: The Last Airbender and its runtime? 

What Do We Know About The Live Action Avatar Episode Count? 

Image via Nickolodeon

Sun-Hyung, who had his breakout role on the Canadian television series, Kim’s Convenience, recently went on the Handsome Genius Club Radio Show and talked about Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series. When asked about what’s to come from the series, the actor confirmed that Season 1 will run for eight hour-long episodes and described it as a very “expensive” undertaking. He said:

“It’s eight episodes, one-hour each, I have no idea when it’s going to be airing. My best guess, at the earliest, would be end of this year.”

While fans might be worried that the story will be edited down since people initially thought it’d be 10 episodes, this new episode count and runtime (eight episodes at one hour each is 480 minutes) is actually on par with the animated series’ Book One: Water, which is 20 episodes at 24 minutes each (also 480 minutes). While nothing has been explicitly stated, it makes sense that Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender series will release seasons based on the animated series’ books (Book One: Water, Book Two: Earth, and Book Three: Fire). 

Avatar: The Last Airbender first aired on Nickelodeon and followed the adventures of twelve-year-old Aang, the current Avatar and last remaining member of his nation, the Air Nomads. Only the Avatar can bend all four elements and they’re responsible for serving as the bridge between the physical world and the spirit world. He befriends Water Tribe siblings Katara and Sokka (the former of which is a water bender) and Toph, an Earth Bender. In addition, they’re trying to escape the exiled prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko, who *SPOILER ALERT* ends up becoming their friend! The show has received critical acclaim for its characters, cultural references, art direction, soundtrack, humor, and themes. It often touched upon more difficult concepts, such as war, genocide, imperialism, totalitarianism, indoctrination, and free choice.

Albert Kim will act as showrunner, executive producer, and writer on the series, with Rideback’s Dan Lin and Lindsey Liberatore executive producing, along with Michael Goi. Roseanne Liang is co-executive producer. Goi, Roseanne Liang, Jabbar Raisani, and Jet Wilkinson are directing. 

There’s no official release date for the Netflix reboot of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but you can watch the entire original series on the streaming site.

What do you think of the new live action Avatar episode count? Do you think the live action Avatar runtime means that everything will be covered in the live action series? Let us know in the comments below!