Headlined by Filipino-Canadian Gordon Cormier, the latest adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon animated series wows the Filipino crowd at its advanced screening last February 21
Many of us are familiar with the legendary story of Aang, the Last Airbender from the Southern Air Temple, whose anointed task as the Avatar, master of all four elements, in the high-fantasy epic of Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko for Nickelodeon, was to set the world back to balance. Some of us fans of the series know it by heart, including the legend of Korra and the Avatar after him. But for Filipino-Canadian actor Gordon Cormier—who lived near the series’ filming location in Vancouver—he didn’t.
“The executive producer Albert Kim said, ‘We searched the whole world looking [for Aang] and at one time, we never thought we’d find this character—’,” Cormier recalled during the press conference last February 21 in Taguig. “‘And we found him’, he said. Then I was like, ‘Oh man’, and acted upset I didn’t get the part. Then they were like, ‘It’s you. You just live ten minutes away from the studio!’,” Cormier said. He remembered he started bawling his eyes out and telling them that they changed his life.
Cormier and co-actor Dallas Liu graced the press conference and exclusive advanced screening of Netflix’s much-anticipated live-action reimagining of the beloved animated series. Sheer excitement was painted on their faces, especially Cormier, who last visited the Philippines before the pandemic. “Oh, I’m very excited to be back here and with my family,” the 14-year-old actor said.
The eight-episode series revolves around the animated series’ first season, where we discover the lost Avatar trapped in an iceberg for the past 100 years. But Kim and the original creators re-wrote this to make the first episode of Season 1 stand on its own, covering most parts of the animated series’ first three episodes and some backstories to give the live adaptation a somewhat chronological storytelling that would make the iconic introductory monologue make sense:
“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.” These exact lines were then given to the character of Gran Gran, the matriarch of the Southern Water Tribe, whose location in the series was called “Wolf Cove”.
After getting the part, Cormier was immediately hooked on the story and has watched the series over 30 times since then.
Read also: ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ star Dallas Liu on being Asian in Hollywood