Avatar Szeto to star in next Chronicles of the Avatar books?

(Art by Avatar News)

Avatar Szeto, the fire Avatar before Yangchen, Kuruk, Kyoshi, Roku, Aang, and Korra, could be the main character of the next Chronicles of the Avatar novels.

In a recent interview with Nerds of Color, Chronicles of the Avatar writer F. C. Yee said he doesn’t know if he’ll be writing more books after Kyoshi and Yangchen, but “if he had his choice of what Avatar to tackle next, he named Avatar Szeto as a possible candidate.” 👀🔥

F. C. Yee introduced Avatar Szeto’s backstory in the Kyoshi books, revealing that he was born in a time of crisis in the Fire Nation due to natural disasters, plagues, and clan conflict. Instead of using his divine position as Avatar to enforce his rule, he joined the Fire Nation government as an entry-level bureaucrat and worked his way up with no special privileges until he was an advisor to the Fire Lord– that’s why he has that vizier-like hat in the few glimpses of him we see in Aang and Korra’s eras.

But as we all know, there’s more to every Avatar than their legacy, and in the Yangchen books we learn that Szeto’s life was secretly messy and “a library of intrigue in the realm of spycraft and trickery”.

His name comes from the Chinese Han dynasty title 司徒 (Sītú) meaning “Minister over the Masses”.

Update on Kyoshi characters voice casting + “New Generations”

Now that The Rise of Kyoshi update has come to the Avatar Generations mobile game, it seems likely that this is what the Kyoshi characters voice casting that we reported on earlier was actually for, not an animated movie/show like we thought.

As we reported, they were being cast for something called “New Generations”, which now seems like code for a “new” “generation” in Avatar Generations.

This is all just the obvious likely case, but I guess not 100% certain. It just seems like too much of a coincidence that these characters were being voice casted for something called “Avatar: New Generations” and then a month later those same characters appear voiced in something new in something called “Avatar: Generations”. It’s just in a game, not an animated movie/show.

To be fair, this was happening at the EXACT same time as casting for the 2025 animated movie, and we had no idea a Kyoshi update was coming to a game, so it was the obvious assumption at the time that all the casting was for the 2025 animated movie, which we knew for sure was happening, or the 2025 animated show, which would make sense if it had the same production timeline.

Another thing is that this has been described as “official voice over talent from Nickelodeon”, so not sure if that implies these voice actors (who have still not been revealed/credited??) are here to stay if the characters do show up in animation, but it does potentially explain why the casting process got confused with the simultaneous casting process for the animated movie if they were both being done by Nickelodeon itself!

Official first look at young Avatar Kyoshi for the first time ever without her makeup!

Kyoshi, Rangi, Yun, and more characters from the Kyoshi novels have been added as a new “generation” in the official Avatar Generations mobile RPG. Check out some Rise of Kyoshi cutscenes from the game here!

Official first looks at Jianzhu, Hei-Ran, and Tagaka!

The official ATLA Instagram account released these today for the characters’ upcoming appearances in the Avatar Generations mobile RPG! Earth Sage Jianzhu, Master Hei-Ran, and Pirate Queen Tagaka were originally introduced in the Kyoshi novels.

Update: It’s likely that “New Generations” was code for an update to the Avatar Generations mobile game, not a movie/show, and that that game was what the Kyoshi characters’ voices were being cast for, not a movie/show.

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Exclusive: Avatar Studios has begun casting for an animated project titled Avatar: New Generations

We have another new potential title for you today: Avatar: New Generations. Avatar Studios is currently casting for this project.

Avatar Kyoshi and her supporting cast including Yun, Rangi, and Hei-Ran from the Chronicles of the Avatar novels will all appear in sizeable roles in New Generations– learn more about their involvement in our previous exclusive here.

There’s still a bit of uncertainty about this current round of casting and what projects each casting call is for. We know for sure that the 2025 adult Gaang movie (itself already rumored to be titled ATLA: Hidden Kingdom) is casting the adult Gaang at the moment. We also now know these Kyoshi characters are being cast for New Generations. We technically don’t know whether they’re being cast for the adult Gaang movie, in which case that would be New Generations, or a separate project, most likely the new earth Avatar series coming the same year (2025). It would make a lot of sense for something called New Generations to be about, well, the new generation, so it feels like that’s a point for the Kyoshi characters showing up in the new earth Avatar series rather than the adult Gaang movie. However, for posterity, it is still possible it’s either the movie or show or even some complete other project we’ve never heard about (or the Kyoshi movie is back lol). If it is the movie (in which case it would probably be referring to the Gaang’s kids’ generation?), this makes it the THIRD potential title we’ve heard for it now: Echoes and Aftershocks, Hidden Kingdom, and New Generations.

Also note: this title is less fixed info than usual– it could change or just be a code name. We have reason to believe it could be slightly off, for example it’s possible New Generation (singular instead of plural) or something similar like Next Generation(s) are on the table.

Update: It’s likely these characters’ voices were being cast for a video game, not a movie/show.

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Exclusive: Kyoshi’s firebending teacher Hei-Ran will be in Avatar Studios’ first animated movie/show + casting calls have gone out for Kyoshi, Yun, Rangi, and Hei-Ran!

Not only is Aang’s Team Avatar currently being cast, but we can exclusively report that Kyoshi’s is as well, plus a certain team mom!

1) Avatar Studios’ first movie and/or show will feature Rangi’s mother Hei-Ran, a member of Kuruk’s Team Avatar and then subsequently his next life Kyoshi’s firebending teacher. This is on top of the Kyoshi era characters we previously exclusively reported on: Kyoshi, Rangi, and Yun.

2) We can also tell you that Avatar Studios is currently casting these characters.

What does all this mean?

Well, first of all, if these names aren’t familiar to you, these characters are from the official Chronicles of the Avatar novels by F. C. Yee: The Rise of Kyoshi (2019) and The Shadow of Kyoshi (2020).

Without spoilers, the situation at the beginning of the books is:

• The Earth Sages have incorrectly identified the next earth Avatar after Kuruk to be an earthbender named Yun.
• Kyoshi, who we obviously know turns out to be the real Avatar, is a servant in Yun’s household.
• A firebender named Rangi is the Avatar (Yun)’s bodyguard.
• Rangi is the daughter of Hei-Ran, the Avatar (Yun)’s firebending teacher (but obviously we know Yun can’t firebend). When she was younger, Hei-Ran was a member of the previous Avatar Kuruk’s Team Avatar, so she may be a relatively minor new character but she’s a pretty damn important historical figure in-universe.

Right now, we don’t know what animated project Avatar Studios is casting these Kyoshi era characters from, but you can be pretty sure it’s not a Kyoshi movie or show itself. We know Avatar Studios’ first-year projects, slated for 2025, are an adult Gaang movie and a show following the new earth Avatar after Korra, and we know for sure casting is currently happening for at least one of those 2025 projects. Therefore, the Kyoshi characters will almost definitely be showing up in flashbacks/visions in one or even both of these stories set hundreds of years later.

Update: It’s likely these characters’ voices were being cast for a video game, not a movie/show.

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Exclusive: Kyoshi, Rangi, Yun, and more Kyoshi novel characters will appear in Avatar Studios’ first movie/show!

We have a huge Avatar News exclusive for you today… and an Avatar News redemption?!

We can confirm that Kyoshi, Rangi, Yun, and more characters from the Chronicles of the Avatar novels The Rise of Kyoshi and The Shadow of Kyoshi by F. C. Yee will have substantial roles in Avatar Studios’ first animated movie and/or show, both slated for 2025!

Currently we don’t have details on which of the first-year projects– the adult Gaang movie lead by Aang and Katara, or the new earth Avatar show– the Kyoshi characters will appear in. Right now, a solid guess between the two is the show; it would make sense for the previous earth Avatar to feature in the next earth Avatar’s story. However, this is just a guess and the adult Gaang movie could easily have some kind of Kyoshi-related plotline we don’t know about yet (what we do know is that it’s set 12 years after ATLA and has a rumored title of Hidden Kingdom). It’s also technically possible that the Kyoshi characters are for a later project, but the production timeline strongly favors one of the first-year projects. In both cases these are almost guaranteed to be flashbacks/visions/etc. (And based on some other details I can’t share yet, I’m fairly confident this isn’t for a Kyoshi movie/show itself.)

What’s interesting is that our very first Avatar News exclusive report on Avatar Studios’ slate infamously had a Kyoshi movie as the first project. This became pretty controversial for us when it was announced that the first movie would actually be about Aang (gasp, Avatar News was wrong!!!!!!!!), and even though a first-year project about an earth Avatar (just, the next earth Avatar rather than the previous one) later came to light, and we got confirmation a Kyoshi project was on the table, and we explained how all this together could have been the source of confusion that led to the Kyoshi report, certain segments of the internet peanut gallery have continued to hold this against Avatar News. But ohhh no, Avatar News kept its nose to the grindstone and some might say that Avatar News was vindicated by this new information! But Avatar News doesn’t care about petty matters like that, Avatar News is just happy to be here. ^_^

The Kyoshi novels are some of the absolute best entries in the whole Avatar franchise (and by the way, live-action Kyoshi agrees!), so this will hopefully be welcome news to everyone who was super excited when there was a Kyoshi movie and then disappointed when there wasn’t. Currently we’re waiting on F. C. Yee’s confirmed next Chronicles of the Avatar novel, the second Yangchen book, which will potentially be announced this month. What we know F. C. Yee isn’t involved with, or at least wasn’t 9 months ago, is the animated movies/shows. Right now, we don’t know if that’s changed in the time since that interview. We do know House of Cards’ Kenneth Lin is writing the adult Gaang movie, but there’s no crew information for the new earth Avatar show yet. It’s possible F. C. Yee could now be joining that as a writer, especially if that is where the Kyoshi characters will be showing up. But! That’s just speculation for now, and there’s already a lot to be excited about just from today’s news.

Kyoshi books writer F. C. Yee says he’s not involved in the animated Kyoshi movie coming to theaters in 2024, set to be directed by Voltron showrunner Lauren Montgomery

We recently learned from Avatar Studios heads Bryke that the studio’s animated movies coming to theaters will not be adaptations of previous books or comics. Earlier, we exclusively revealed the subjects and dates of the first three movies, including that the first, coming 2024, will follow Avatar Kyoshi.

Put these two things together, and we know that the Kyoshi movie won’t be an adaptation/remake of F. C. Yee’s amazing Avatar Chronicles novels The Rise of Kyoshi and The Shadow of Kyoshi, but a brand-new story that will “feed off” of the expanded universe content like the books.

Now, F. C. Yee, in an interview about his next novel, The Dawn of Yangchen, has revealed that as of now, he has actually had no involvement with Avatar Studios’ animated plans and doesn’t know anything about what’s in store. Check out the full quote:

CBR: “Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DeMartino have been very hush-hush about what Avatar Studios has in store for fans in the future. Did you have much insight into what those plans are? Are there any blood oaths you want to betray by giving fans an idea of what they can expect?”

F. C. Yee: “Honestly, I have none; the novel publishing arm is a different unit. I’m as curious as the rest of the fandom!”

(Source: CBR)

Now, I’m guessing this is a bit of a PR answer just because the Kyoshi movie hasn’t been officially announced yet, but that he probably does at least know about it behind the scenes since he’s pretty important in Avatar canon right now, especially her era. But, I don’t think he’s lying about not being involved. The Kyoshi movie is Avatar Studios’ first project, which they’ve been developing in earnest for probably a year at this point, and I think if he was involved he would have already been working on it for a while. He was also writing a whole Yangchen book during that timespan, and is already planning a second, which I find to be unlikely if he was working on a huge new flagship movie. It is possible that this is just an official PR non-answer for right now, and that when the Kyoshi movie is officially announced his involvement will be revealed too, but I think right now I’m gonna take his words at face value and believe them, meaning he really isn’t involved in Avatar outside of the novels.

Well, if F. C. Yee isn’t involved, who is? The untitled Kyoshi movie is set to be directed by Voltron: Legendary Defender showrunner Lauren Montgomery and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, and Eric Coleman. It’s reported to hit theaters in 2024.