The world of Avatar: The Last Airbender is about to get a whole lot bigger: On June 25, Season 2 of the live-action reimagining of the beloved animated series rumbles your way.
Aang (Gordon Cormier) and his friends will venture farther into the Earth Kingdom, unlocking a deeper and more perilous chapter in their battle against the fearsome Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim). On their journey, they enter the mysterious city of Ba Sing Se, which Season 2 brings to life on an epic scale.
In a behind-the-scenes video, which you can watch above, the cast and crew explore the sprawling practical sets of Ba Sing Se, which was built outdoors by a team led by production designer Michael Wylie. Executive producer and writer Christine Boylan explains that stepping up the production played a major role in helping the series mature from Season 1 to Season 2. “Once we got the back lot and we realized we could build Ba Sing Se … I probably cried that day. It was so exciting,” she says. “All of those buildings were real. We would go in there with our monitors. We would go in there and write.”
The sets aren’t the only thing the series has leveled up for Season 2. “Our goal for Season 1 was to introduce the audience to this group of characters that were kids in the middle of a war zone,” says executive producer Jabbar Raisani. “And [in] Season 2, we take those kids and they grow. But growth is not a straight line. … They’re really trying to figure out who they are.”
Season 2 also introduces one of the franchise’s most beloved characters: Toph Beifong, a blind earthbending master played by Miyako, who was cast from 6,000 hopefuls. As Aang begins his earthbending training with Toph, their dynamic is, as Cormier puts it, “definitely one of those relationships that start off quite rocky. Get it?” He adds, “I’m learning, she’s teaching. … There’s quite a bit of argumentativeness, if that’s a word.”
The chemistry and banter among the cast will come in handy for the challenges that the Gaang will face — not only in Season 2 but also in the third and final season, which has already wrapped production. “I’m a big fan of the dark center of a trilogy,” teases Boylan. “So why shouldn’t we go hard? Why should we go easy? We have to go full bore.”
The journey is just beginning when Avatar: The Last Airbender returns June 25.
