The great thing about acting is that it lets actors transform into characters totally unlike their real-life persona. This is even more the case with voice acting which allows actors and actresses to twist and contort their voices to fit an endless supply of the most fantastical characters artists can conjure up.
However, according to the new Hollywood DEI dictates, this aspect of acting isn’t great, but rather problematic. Because identity is so important to them, they believe each should stick to their own — or at the very least, the more “privileged” (as they define the term) should never play the role of a less privileged identity.
In other words, white actors should never play black characters, men should never portray women (look out Tyler Perry) and now, apparently, sighted voice actors should never play blind animated characters.
In June 2022, Paramount and Nickelodeon announced they would be bringing back the critically acclaimed series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” via three standalone animated films, according to Variety.
It was later revealed that the first of these films would feature the return of the original series’ fan-favorite cast of characters.
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Most of the actors who voiced those characters, however, will not be returning.
The only returning cast member from the original Nickelodeon series is Dante Basco, who voiced the character Zuko.
Everyone else, the voices behind the characters Aang (the titular hero), Katara (Aang’s love interest), Toph (the group’s rough and tough tomgirl companion) and Sokka (the team’s comedic relief), have all been replaced.
Unlike Basco (who is Filipino), the other four original series actors — Zach Tyler Eisen, Mae Whitman, Michaela Jill Murphy and Jack De Sena — all appear to be white.
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Their replacements (or at least the one’s announced so far) — Eric Nam, Jessica Matten and Dionne Quan — are all ethinic minorites. Nam and Quan are of Asian descent, while Matten is indigenous Canadian.
There is one likely reason why Nickelodeon and Paramount many have decided to replace the white actors instead of bringing them back like they did with Basco: The fictional world of “The Last Airbender” is heavily influenced by Asian culture.
Each of the world’s four factions are influenced by different real-world Asian nations and cultures (Imperial Japan, monarchical China, the Tibetan monk and the Inuit tribes, to be precise).
So, the two studios may have decided having white actors voice characters based on ethnic cultures was “problematic” by modern Hollywood standards.
One of the castings in particular lends credence to the theory that the prodeucers of the show were more concerned with the cast’s “representation” than bringing back fan-favorite voices.
The character of Toph, who is blind in the original series, will be voiced by a blind actress in the new show.
Now, what are the odds that a blind actress just-so-happened to be the best voice actress to portray Toph?
What seems much more likely is that Nickelodeon and Paramount felt each individual character’s “identity” needed to be represented by their corresponding actor or actress.
According to Variety, the new film is set to release on Oct. 10, 2025.
