Exposing the Earth’s Impunity: Miya Cech To Toph, Rock it Out in ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Season 2

Netflix sent out a Geeked Week seismic wave announcing the much-anticipated second season of its live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender adaptation. When the Earth shakes beneath your feet, know that Toph Beifong is following, but now she is ready to move the Earth (or the show, rather!) beneath us all… barrel-rolling our way in the persona of Miya Cech. Let’s unpack that shot heard ’round the globe.

THE GROUNDBREAKING REVEAL

If the elements are more than mute nature, they are a move of power, mastery and self. Spring rolled out a teaser video announcing that production on Season 2 had commenced, featuring a cartoon pair of feet – curly toenails scuffing the ground – leading into a classic Earthbending move. And announcing the series’s newest cast member, the actor Miya Cech as Toph Beifong. This announcement brought some exciting news. But it was an announcement that would anchor the upcoming shifts to Avatar’s kung fu world.

Toph Beifong: The Earthbending Prodigy

For those who hadn’t seen the animated introduction in Season 2, Toph doesn’t show up in the live-adaptation in Season 1. In fact, when the original series introduces her in its second season, she wears the same earth-coloured dress that she dons when joining the gang in Season 2 of the reboot. Like a young Sun Wukong striding through a dust-storm, Toph arrived in the original on a flying mud beast that was her signature mode of transport. She’s short, fiercely independent and the fiercest Earthbender in the world, as well as a pioneer in making it possible to bend metal. She’s the heroic tinkerer, and her arsenal is made up of Earthbending sorcery and wizardry. When she makes her big entrance (episode two of Season 2), she promises that the adventures of Avatar: The Last Airbender are about to get a whole lot grounded.

Miya Cech: A Force of Nature

The already impressive castline is getting still more impressive with Miya Cech, who plays Toph, one of Avatar: The Last Airbender’s most memorable characters. (People who watched the animated series will likely remember Toph by the voice of the actor Michaela Jill Murphy, which, in my opinion, really sets the bar high.) But, still, the enthusiasm around her casting more generally suggests that there is a lot of confidence that she will do right by Toph’s scrappy spirit. She joins the previously announced Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley and others to continue the story of a destiny-bound group of friends who set out to save the world.

What Lies Ahead: AVATAR SEASON 2'S TERRAIN

With production now officially underway, the peaks of the Earth Kingdom may be even more freighted with speculation and anticipation than when season 1 first began. Though largely well received, reviews of that season, which introduced viewers to the elemental story of Aang and his friends, highlighted pace and effects as areas to improve. At the very least, Netflix seems willing to shift some tectonic plates, as it’s already renewed the series for additional seasons. Either way, it appears to view the live-action show as something that could not only continue to grow and develop – in the same way as its characters – but something Netflix doesn’t want to let go of.

THE ANTICIPATION BUILDS

Our fingers are crossed as we wait for more news on when Season 2 will come out but, until then, our anticipation can only build as we welcome a brand new character to the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, bringing with her more material we can add to our already-extensive worldbuilding efforts. Fans get new moves, new characters, and new stories. a new generation of young fans will be introduced to this masterpiece of animation and the original series will be etched into our collective memory.

Exploring the Move

At the centre of this announcement and the build-up to its revelation is the ‘move’, which, in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, is at once physical and an expression of a deeper relationship with the elemental power of a world. Earthbending moves – powerful, resilient, adaptive – reflect on the earth itself, and Toph’s mastery over them has allowed the show to take viewers into the soul of its Earthbenders, who bends not with eyes, but with heart and spirit. In this sense, Season 2 will amp up the show’s commitment to every move being an expression of this elemental power, a fresh and fantastical synthesis of tradition and innovation, and, most of all, the unfettered, subterranean force that is earth itself.

Netflix casting Miya Cech as Toph and formally launching production on Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 aren’t just fan-pleasing updates, they’re a sign that the show’s creators are formally committing to bringing a whole magical elemental world to life. And with every step made, this world seems to inch a little bit closer to the dizzying schism between animation and live action – and with it, a journey that could be just as rich and powerful as the very earth we live on.