Celebrating the 5X Annie Award and Primetime Emmy-winning series’ 20th Anniversary, the iconic and influential Nickelodeon show’s co-creators and key cast led a nostalgic panel at last week’s San Diego Comic-Con filled with sing-alongs, franchise announcements, and never-before-seen art.
It was a series that only lasted three years, but its influence has spanned two decades.Nickelodeon’s five-time Annie Award-winning series explored a war-torn world filled with elemental powers, where a young boy named Aang reawakens to undertake a dangerous mystic quest to fulfill his destiny as the Avatar, mastering the elements of water, earth, fire and air in order to bring peace.
The series, also a Peabody and Primetime Emmy winner, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year; fans were invited to attend last week’s San Diego Comic Con for a nostalgic panel featuring key cast members and co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, complete with sing-alongs, script readings, never-before-seen 20th anniversary art and release date announcements. Konietzko and Dante DiMartino shared that “Beasts of the Four Nations: Creatures From Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra,” an art book by Dark Horse Comics that includes images and information about the many types of animals inhabit the world of , is scheduled to release September 23, 2025.An upcoming expansion set for the trading card game , was also announced to release November 21, 2025, with a first look on Twitch scheduled for August 12 at 10 a.m.PT.
, will be theatrically released in the United States on October 9, 2026, by Paramount Pictures.’s first animated feature film, which continues the story of the original series, is being directed by Lauren Montgomery and co-directed by William Mata.“We can’t show you anything from this yet,” noted Konietzko during the panel.
“But I can tell you the footage that has been animated, there’s nothing that looks like this.It’s 2D animation with these really beautiful deep canvas environments and it is just going to blow you away.Next San Diego Comic Con, we’ll show you some stuff.” The panel also included a first look at brand-new artwork from , the upcoming 2D-animated series from Avatar Studios, which follows a young Earthbender and her cat monkey creature, based on Konietzko’s own cat, who discovers she is the next Avatar.
It is slated to premiere in 2027.“This is something totally different,” Konietzko shared.“We like to make each project its own thing.
As you can see, it still feels like , but the world is very different.You’ll have to tune in to find out why.” Nickelodeon also had their 20th anniversary exhibit hall walk-through experience at SDCC this year.Just past the sky bison Appa photo-op, and in a room full of cabbages (true fans will understand) promoting the upcoming “Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Official Baking Book,” out September 30, 2025.
AWN took a seat to interview Aang’s voice actor Zach Tyler Eisen and Fire Nation prince Zuko’s voice actor Dante Basco.Eisen was only 10 years old when he was cast as the Avatar and could never have anticipated how big the world of this show would become.Eisen, like Aang, did not fully understand the gravity of his role, nor how this would inspire the fans who were the same age as he was in the booth. “Being initially cast, it was like, ‘We’re going to be on a Nickelodeon show.
That’s great,’ and we didn’t know much about it other than some basic rundowns,” says Eisen.“We didn’t know where it was going.We didn’t know it was going to get so deep.
It eventually became clear as we did more episodes and got more scripts that it was heavy.” There are few animated series where a child actor stars as a child protagonist in an epic saga that shapes how other young kids see the world.Even Basco, as the oldest of the main group, didn’t fully grasp the weight of the series, or how Zuko’s struggles in the show parallelled his own life at the time. “I had no clue what was going on,” Basco shares.“I was just in the moment, living in the character as we were going.
But, because I did the [] podcast with Janet Varney, I've had the unique experience to go back and really dive into each episode by itself and then the whole thing together.I mean, as an actor, I never go back to watch anything.We just kind of move on to the next thing.
But it’s been cool to do that.I also started reliving all the things I was going through at the time.” He continues, “I was going through very Zuko-esque things in my personal life, dealing with trauma and abuse with an authority figure in my life, then breaking from that relationship later on.It was a 20-year relationship with a teacher that got intense.
But when you’re going through the trauma and the abuse and the breaking away, you don’t see the connection right away.It’s all a bit blurry.But when I go back and look, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah.
Right actor.Right character.Right time.’ I think that's one of the magical things about Zuko.
Everyone comes to me and talks to me about his story and about the troubles he went through and how he’s been there for them.And I'm like, ‘Me too, bro.He's also been there for me.’” Similarly, Eisen wasn’t aware of the parallels between himself and Aang during his time voicing for the character, but looking back after 20 years, he’s now putting the pieces together. “Aang is a regular 12-year-old kid,” starts Eisen.
“Obviously, he's a lot more than that.But, at his core, he still wants to be a 12-year-old and wants to do the fun stuff while he's training to master all four elements.And I wanted to go to baseball practice after I was done recording for .
We had a lot of those parallels.” He adds, “But it's funny.A couple of months back, I threw on a random episode, and it was when they went to Kyoshi Island for the first time.It’s where Aang was getting mobbed by all the little girls and he has to not to let all the attention go to his head.
That was never me, but it was a good lesson to remember.” Basco, not totally convinced Eisen had never been mobbed by fan girls in his life, interjected, “Hey, we’re all actors and we’ve all had those moments.We’ve had our moments, and we’re not proud of it.” But Basco, along with Jack De Sena and Mae Whitman, who voice Aang’s friends Sokka and Katar, are now very proud parents.“Mae and Jack and I all had babies within three months of each other, which was very magical, and we have a group chat called ‘Bender Babies’ where we exchange pictures of each other’s babies,” says Basco.
“We’re always looking in amazement at our own child and each other’s children because now we see each other at cons like this, and we bring our kids so the babies get to roll around with each other.” Eisen, while not a parent, does bring a furry friend to the group in true Aang fashion. “I just want to say, I’ve got a puppy,” notes Eisen.“He’s my Appa.” Though it’s well-known that there are a lot of less-than-ideal parental figures within the universe, Eisen and Basco say there are a lot of lessons they’ve learned about what not to do. “I think on one of the podcast’s episodes I say that could be renamed, ‘Dads Behaving Badly,’” says Basco.“As a parent, there’s no manual, so you hope that all these things we watch, including things like , help make us better parents.
But we all aspire to be Uncle Iroh.” While wouldn’t be what it is without its writers, voice actors are the conduit for expressing such great storytelling.And, even 20 years later, it’s Eisen and Basco’s voices that remain locked in the memories of those who watched their characters grow, change, and strive to be better. Eisen says it’s a lovely and heavy realization. “They aren't our words, even when we do give them life,” notes Eisen.“And we're always crediting Mike and Bryan and writer Aaron Ehasz and our voice director Andrea Romano, who got us there.
But yeah.Being that voice is very special.” Basco adds, “I was in my 20s when I did the show.I’d been acting my whole life and I’ve done some cool characters.
Nowhere in my mind did I know that this was going to be one of the characters I was going to be remembered for.It’s mind blowing to us, also to see the tattoos people have of the show, how they name children after our characters or us sometimes.We are a part of people’s lives and it’s such an honor.
No pun intended.” Eisen interjects, “No.Pun very much intended.” Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime.She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment.
Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
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