Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender is on the horizon, touching down on February 21. But fans of a certain pint-sized earthbending badass will have to wait a little longer for their hero to make her live-action appearance.
Recommended Videos
I’m talking, of course, about Toph, daughter of the wealthy Beifong family and self-taught earthbender. Here’s why Toph probably won’t be in season 1 of the Netflix adaptation, and when we can expect her to arrive.
Season 1 of Netflix’s Avatar will likely cover Book One: Water
The original Airbender series on Nickelodeon consisted of three seasons, or books: Water, Earth, and Air.
Book One: Water began with Aang waking up after a hundred years frozen in an iceberg, and culminated with Team Avatar’s journey to the North Pole so that Aang and Katara could master waterbending. Although they had plenty of diversions along the way, and we did meet new characters, season 1 was mainly focused on the burgeoning friendship between Aang, Katara, and Sokka.
Judging from the footage we’ve seen in the two trailers for the Netflix adaptation, season 1 will likely follow the same course. You never know, though—the adaptation isn’t a direct remake, so it’s possible they could shake things up.
Toph’s first appearance in the original Avatar: The Last Airbender
In the original Nickelodeon series, Toph doesn’t appear until season 2 (or Book Two: Earth). Her first appearance is in episode 6, “The Blind Bandit.” As a blind child, Toph is kept sequestered by her overprotective family, but she secretly learns earthbending and becomes a formidable fighter. When she meets Aang, Katara, and Sokka, she fits right in, and teaches Aang earthbending.
That means that Toph will probably appear in season 2 of the Netflix adaptation—although a second season hasn’t been greenlit yet, nor have any casting announcements of season 2 characters been made.
So if you’re impatient to have Toph back in your life, I feel you. Let’s just cross our fingers that a) season 1 is good enough to warrant a season 2, and b) season 2 comes quickly.
(featured image: Nickelodeon)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]