At IGN Live today, fans got a special preview of what’s to come in Season 2 of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, as the show welcomes a very beloved character from the original animated series, Toph, to this live-action incarnation of the story.
On hand at IGN Live were Gordon Cormier (“Aang”), Christine Boylan (Executive Producer), and Jabbar Raisani (Executive Producer and Director) along with Toph herself, Miyako. A portion of a special Toph-centric new behind the scenes video debuted at the panel, showing more of what to expect from Toph and what it took for Miyako to portray the powerful earthbender, and you can watch the full video above.
Miyako — already a big fan of the animated series before she was cast — noted that playing the role, she felt “Dedicated to portraying her as true to the animated series as possible.” The actress had high praise for Avatar: The Last Airbender’s stunt team for their fight training, and also brought up her crucial collaboration with Joe Strechay, the Blindness Consultant for the series, who helped make sure her portrayal of the blind Toph felt accurate. Strechay was always on set with her to discuss both the realities of blindness for a character like Toph and how that would intertwine with her fantastical earthbending abilities.
Asked about what it’s like filming her scenes barefoot, Miyako laughed that it certainly could be cold, given they were in production during the winter in Vancouver. She recalled a day when it had snowed beforehand and she was offered shoes by the costume team to wear off camera and telling them “No! I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna be fine!” because she was determined to literally put herself into the shoes — well, the non-shoes that is — of her character.
Cormier joked that Season 2 of Airbender found Aang “A little taller and his voice is a little deeper,” before noting that Aang can waterbend now and is at least a little stronger – something he’ll need, given the stakes get higher each season and Aang is feeling more and more of a burden of responsibility.
Season 2 and 3 of Avatar: The Last Airbender were shot back to back, with only about a month break between them. Boylan praised the cast and crew for keeping up with this tough pace, while she and Raisani also said it became helpful to realize moments where they could go back into Season 2 and hint at or set up something to come in Season 3 more than they had originally planned.
Regarding adapting the beloved animated series, Boylan said the writers asked themselves “What did we love across all seasons?” She also said that they would ask “What are the things that are better left to animation?” in terms of moments they all agreed were best served by that medium. On the flip side, she said, “There is some stuff you want to dig into with live actors and we have such an amazing cast. The fights. big conversations, deep emotions… What can we dig into that maybe the animation didn’t have time for?”
Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 debuts June 25 on Netflix.
Be sure to keep up with everything going on at IGN Live 2026. You can check the full schedule to see what else is coming up across games, movies, TV, streaming, and more.
