Team ‘Avatar’ Unfiltered: A Panel Recap From Fan Expo Chicago 2025
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It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 20 years since the premiere of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I don’t think anyone would’ve ever thought the impact the show would have all these years later. This weekend, I attended Fan Expo Chicago, where I got to see the original cast discuss the show and their experiences during the filming, and even all these years later.
The first question they are asked is if there was a specific fan interaction that stood out to them. Jack De Sena, who voiced Sokka, said that their favorite interactions are always the ones they have at conventions. They get to interact and hear from fans about how much the show means to them. They discussed how much it still inspires people, decades later, and that this could be attributed to the work of the creators of the show, with all the care and details they put into their work. One of them also recounted the early days of their recordings and remembered how good the scripts were. There was also a beginning, middle, and end to the show, and you couldn’t just pop in every other week; you needed to know what was actively happening in order to follow the story. None of them knew it would become a “legacy” show, and that it was weird to see it organically become one.
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The cast agreed that if there was a blooper track, Dante Basco, the voice of Zuko, would be featured the most. He defended himself by saying that he talks fast and would get excited. When he voiced Zuko, he was a newer voice actor, so he also got excited. Zach Tyler Eisen, the voice of Aang, talked a bit about how he recorded most of his lines solo, and not with the other members of the cast. He attributes the chemistry of the cast to Andrea Romano. He met his fellow cast members for the first time at the season 3 wrap party. Jack De Sana was asked if he enjoyed leaning more into Sokka’s idea side or comedic side. He said he enjoyed the idea side more, because there was so much cool and interesting stuff they got to explore. The comedy part was just more of a “we’ll have some fun”.
Greg Baldwin, the second voice actor for Uncle Iroh, talks about recording the Ba Sing Se episode, especially the moment where Iroh visits his dead son's grave. He says that he has never sung the iconic song that plays during that moment, sung by Mako, the original voice actor, in public. No one else could’ve put the amount of emotion into the song as Mako did. He will also wonder what Mako would’ve done during certain scenes.
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The audience questions were presubmitted, which is always a good thing in my opinion. The first question that was asked related to the shipping of two characters, specifically Zutara (Zuko x Katara). It was directed at Mae Whitman, the voice of Katara. She said that Zuko is like your first boyfriend, who has the “bad boy” vibes to him, but then you hit your 20s and wanna watch TV, have dinner, and then chat, which she says was more of an Aang thing. Katara eventually grew into Aang.
Lastly, they were asked if their characters would thrive in 2025 Chicago. Sokka would be doing well, Iroh would probably be running a dispensary, Katara would be by the lake all day, and Toph would be helping with construction and baffled by the Bean. Aang, of course, would be fine in the Windy City. Zuko would be eating pizza, but he may not be the most welcome, due to the city’s history with fire.
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