Not that surprisingly, many of the talents behind the original Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender are making their way back for the next series in the Avatar universe, The Legend of Korra. One of the biggest (or at least most recognizable ) names returning to table is Sifu Kisu, the fighting instructor and consultant for the original series. According to online blogs of Giancarlo Volpe and Ian Graham, Sifu Kisu, Joaquim Dos Santos, Ki Hyun Ryu, and JM Animation will be a few of the original team members returning for Korra. Volpe and Dos Santos were directors for the series, but Volpe won't be returning because he's busy with other projects. Graham was a storyboard supervisor and will be reprising his role. Ki Hyun Ryu was a character designer, and JM Animation was one of two Korean animation studios that worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Is there any talent you wish to see return for The Legend of Korra? I am curious to see if Manny Rodriguez (martial arts consultant for the Toph character) will return. I also wonder about Dee Bradley Baker's involvement. His voice acting for the creatures of the Avatar universe was brilliant!

As The Last Airbender prepares for its release this weekend in cinemas across the United Kingdom, director M. Night Shyamalan and producer Frank Marshall have been hitting the press circuit promoting the film for its international release. The folks at LoveFilm.com recently posted two neat little video interviews with the acclaimed filmmakers - check em out below:


How many UK readers here plan on seeing The Last Airbender this weekend?

Our friends over at UGO recently spoke with Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn, aka The Track Team, the composer/sound designer duo behind the original series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The interview touches on all sorts of stuff, including how the two formed, how they became involved on the original series, and just what they have in store for us with the upcoming Legend of Korra.

UGO: I know that the Airbender follow up isn't until 2011, have you guys started chatting about that with everybody and preparing to work on that show?

Jeremy Zuckerman: A little bit, very briefly. A very brief stylistic conversation. We really don't know too much.

UGO: I know Mike and Bryan had a few conversations with people at Comic-Con about where the show is going, it's seventy years down the line and takes place in a metropolis big city. So I was very curious about, as of right now before you dive in, where stylistically it will be going and the evolution of the music as time has passed in this world. From your point of view, how is this show going to change from the original?

Jeremy Zuckerman: When we talked to them about how they were pitching this show, we thought it was a great idea because it was a way to continue the story with all new characters and you kind of see how those other characters influenced this world. It's pretty genius, you know? We talked very briefly about the music and it seems exciting because it sounded like they wanted the environment of this big city to influence the music of it. I think I remember Bryan mentioning industrial or somehow it sounded like we might be able to use some of our electronic...know how or whatever...to enter it into some the score, which sounded pretty cool. That was a long time ago when we had the conversation so I'm not sure if that still really applies, but I think at the very least the industrial nature of that city is going to influence the music some how.

Hmmm. A possible Industrial/Asian fusion? Sounds interesting! Read the rest (there's a lot more!) of UGO's awesome interview with The Track Team by clicking here.

ToonZone.net recently participated in a roundtable discussion with the voice/casting director of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Andrea Romano. Andrea also happens to be the voice/casting director for The Legend of Korra, which according to the discussion, is already in the progress of voice recording. 

TZN: Will you be working on the new Avatar: The Last Airbender series?

ANDREA ROMANO: I already am. I’ve recorded three episodes. It's seventy five years in the future.

TZN: Will Aang in any way be in the series?

ANDREA ROMANO: I don’t know how much of the series I’m allowed to tell you, but that whole generation has died. It’s the next generation. So it’s really cool. It’s the same producers. It’s the same brilliant attention to detail and I’m very excited. Right now we are just making twelve of them and we’ll see what happens.

Supposedly a 12 part mini-series, The Legend of Korra is said to set for debut in late 2011. Stick tuned to the site for more updates.

Hey everybody! We are giving away 3 copies of The Last Airbender video game for the Nintendo Wii and 3 copies for the Nintendo DS. I had the opportunity to play through some of the Wii game last month at the Last Airbender press day in NYC, and more recently by myself at home. It's actually better than I expected and it is definitely the best game made so far based off this series/universe. I'll be posting a more in-depth review in the coming week or so.

I've set up 3 different ways for you to win either of the games. I'll be giving out copies of each game via the comments section here, our news feed on twitter, and via our facebook page. For rules and more details on how to enter, go to LastAirbenderFans.com/giveaway.