Daniel Dae Kim To Play Fire Lord Ozai In ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Netflix Live-Action Series

Daniel Dae Kim, known for his roles in Hawaii Five-0, Lost and The Hot Zone: Anthrax, will soon play Fire Lord Ozai in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The 53-year-old will play the fiercely driven leader of the Fire Nation Ozai who believes in conquering and uniting the world under firebender rule. Ozai believes that it’s his destiny to finish a war started by his ancestors and places a lot of pressure on his teenage son, Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu).

Kim joins the rest of the cast including Gordon Cormier, who plays Aang; Kiawentiio (Katara); and Ian Ousley (Sokka), reports Deadline. The character was voiced by Mark Hamill in the beloved Nickelodeon animated series.

Kim is no stranger to the franchise having previously previously voiced the character of General Fong in the Last Airbender animated series in a 2006 episode as well as in the 2007 video game. He also voiced  Hiroshi Sato in The Legend of Korra, which served as a followup to Last Airbender. Goi, Roseanne Liang, Jabbar Raisani and Jet Wilkinson will be directing the upcoming live-action film. Albert Kim will serve as showrunner, executive producer and writer on the series.

According to The Hollywood Reporter Netflix picked up Avatar: The Last Airbender for a series back in September 2018 and Albert Kim will serves as the central writer on the series. He will exec produce alongside Dan Lin (The Lego Movie, Aladdin) and Lindsey Liberatore (Walker) of Rideback as well as Michael Goi (Swamp Thing).

Kim is also a strong advocate for Asian representation on screen. The actor even criticized the way his character on Lost played on Asian stereotypes. "My greatest fear was that the pilot of Lost would air, but the series would not — because if you were to see the pilot as the totality of my character, you would have been left with that stereotype," Kim told Vulture. He continued, "While we were shooting, I remember sitting down with Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams and saying, 'Guys, this character cannot progress in this same way.' They basically said, 'Trust us.' I did, and it turned out for the best. As an Asian actor, you're just looking to get hired. It's about working within the system to try and change it when you have the opportunity," The Lost star said. "The character grew to a place where I don't think you'd call him a stereotype by the end." He also said he worked with  the Lost writers to make sure the Korean dialogue in the show, along with his accent were authentic.