Today, Avatar News announced that actress Thalia Tran had been cast as the non-bending knife-throwing assassin Mai in Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. Many fans noticed the actress was followed and followed back by cast members of the series during production, including director Michael Goi and executive producer Ryan Halprin. In April, Werner/Dale Management also confirmed (below) that Tran had a recurring role in an untitled project filming in Canada. Tran is best known for voicing baby Noi in Raya and The Last Dragon. As well as appearing as the series lead in Council of Dads on NBC. She will join Elizabeth Yu as Azula and Momona Tamada as Ty Lee to round out the all-female evil Fire Nation team that hunts the Avatar. While all three characters aren’t formally introduced into the original show until season 2; Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee will have much more expanded role in the live-action adaption.
In the original series, Mai has a longtime crush on Prince Zuko due to her friendship with Azula. She has no bending abilities but is often emotionless and sarcastic of the group that includes Ty lee. She is the daughter of a Fire Nation nobleman but is often bored with her elite status, so she takes up knife throwing as an outlet. She becomes a very skilled hand-to-hand assassin against actual benders with her knives. Though she never fully trusts Azula, she becomes very close with Ty Lee. Production on the series ended in mid-June.
Avatar: The Last Airbender will stream exclusively on Netflix
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