Dallas Liu Embraces His Destiny

Dallas Liu is at the crossroads of his own destiny. After six years in the head of Prince Zuko, the exiled prince — and ostensible fan favorite — of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender remake, the 24-year-old actor has the world at his feet.

Playing Zuko is the culmination of a childhood dream. Like countless zillennials, Liu grew up watching the original Avatar on Nickelodeon. Zuko imprinted on him hard as a child: the character is the very reason Liu practiced martial arts at an early age. Growing up just at the edge of Los Angeles with his father as his sparring coach and his mom critiquing his exhibition clips, Liu was building a foundation for the combat-heavy roles he’s now synonymous with.

“You create these imaginary scenarios in your head as a kid playing basketball and stuff,” Liu tells Inverse over Zoom. “I was like, I would be a firebending Avatar. I would essentially be Roku.”

He didn’t quite reach that goal, but inarguably got something better when he won the role of Zuko. Taking the torch from Dante Basco (whose voice performance went a long way in making the character so iconic) and Dev Patel — the rare bright spot in M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 Avatar — was a daunting hurdle during Season 1. When he returned to film the second and third seasons of Avatar back-to-back, the same passion that fueled him as a child informed his growing confidence.

“There was a lot of freedom in doing Seasons 2 and 3 because it’s never been [adapted] before,” Liu continues. “I was just excited to be given the opportunity to play, because those are my favorite parts of Zuko.”

His enthusiasm is infectious: it’s the second season of the original Avatar that turned Zuko from a mopey antagonist blindly chasing the Avatar into, in Liu’s words, “one of the greatest characters in animated history.” It’s in Season 2 that Zuko’s redemption truly begins. After trying and failing to capture Avatar Aang (Gordon Cormier) at the end of Season 1, Zuko and his benevolent uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) renounce their ties to the Fire Nation, drifting through the Earth Kingdom in exile.

“It’s because of Season 2 that Zuko is remembered as one of the greatest characters in animated history.”

With his original mission in ruins, Zuko is forced to reckon with the past traumas he’s spent years running from, answering questions he never thought he’d have to face. Who is he aside from his loyalty to his father, the evil Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim)? What does he want out of life, besides the restoration of his honor? And can he rock a buzzcut? (Not really, which is why you don’t actually see it in Netflix’s remake — though Liu did fight to bring the unfortunate haircut into live-action: “Continuity-wise, it was going to be giving our hair team absolute hell.”)

On a far less dramatic level, Liu is grappling with a similar question. Filming for Avatar’s third and final season wrapped in 2025, which leaves Liu relatively free to explore new horizons. Lengthy as his wish list for dream roles remains, it’s hard to say goodbye to the character who started it all. As the dust settles on Avatar Season 2, Liu sits down with Inverse to unpack its devastating finale, the music that helps him get into Zuko’s head, and the cut storylines he hoped to explore.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

When we spoke at the premiere, you mentioned that things have been less terrifying this time around. When you were filming Season 1, were you thinking about the pressure of taking on this character?

A little bit... Well, I shouldn’t say a little bit. A lot, because Season 1 is the one that’s been done before. So not only are we having to measure up to the cartoon [which] is so beloved, then you have another project that came out that isn’t so beloved. But there are parts of it — like Dev Patel, for example — that I thought were great. For me, playing Zuko, I felt all the pressure because I was like, Damn, Dev Patel?

First Dante Basco, then Dev Patel…

Yeah, dang. It’s just one after another. But Paul Sun-Hyung Lee made that Season 1 experience really, really special for me… I feel like I developed so much as an actor and a human being. I knew what to expect coming into it this time, and I knew what I was going to hold onto artistically and what I was going to be able to just let happen on the day. There was a lot of freedom in doing Seasons 2 and 3 because it’s never been [adapted] before. I was just excited to be given the opportunity to play, because those are my favorite parts of Zuko. It’s because of Season 2 and Season 3 that Zuko is remembered as one of the greatest characters in animated history.

Talk to me about your relationship to the show before you were cast. What did Zuko mean to you back then? Did you watch the show when you were younger?

Gosh, yes, of course. I grew up on Avatar: The Last Airbender, like many of the cast. Zuko was a big reason why I got invested into martial arts so heavily. I was in love with firebending, [and] as you grow up with these characters, they inspire you so much as a kid. And then you tap back into it in [lockdown] like everyone else does. And then you’re like, “Oh, this is so much more than I ever thought it was.”

What martial arts did you study, and how do you think it prepared you to play Zuko?

I did Japanese Shotokan, which is a style of karate. I started when I was 5 years old. And then I continued it up until I was around the ages of 13 to 14. And it’s been helpful for every single martial arts role. When you’ve been doing it for that long, you develop a very high level of body coordination to the point where it’s similar to dance, where you can watch and understand how someone else is moving. In terms of Zuko’s style of firebending, I felt like that was very specific to me personally. Even though it is based on Northern Shaolin Kung Fu and all these other fast-paced martial arts styles, I got to imbue a little bit of [myself] when I was 12, competing at karate tournaments.

“This character literally means everything to me... Every character moving forward, I’m looking for Zuko.”

Did you have a Zuko playlist?

Yeah, definitely had a Zuko playlist. Season 1, I had a lot of Elliott Smith on it, but Season 2, the turmoil was so strong that I had a ton of Radiohead playing. For this season, it was In Rainbows. Some of those songs make you want to do that classic anime shirt-rip-and-scream.

After two seasons — well, actually three, since you wrapped filming Season 3 — do you feel like you have an even better understanding of who Zuko is?

Yeah. I mean, so much so that I want to keep playing him now into, hopefully, completely uncharted territory. A Book Four or even a Blue Spirit story I think would be really cool. If you’ve watched the cartoon, Zuko becomes Fire Lord. But I think it’d be cool if we did a story about Zuko trying to help his mother or find his mom while also helping Azula, rekindling that relationship.

Adapting the comics?

Yeah, yeah. I’d love to play Zuko in something that hasn’t been created before, as well. This character literally means everything to me. It’s like a relationship. Every character moving forward, I’m looking for Zuko.

Was there anything you wish had made it into this season?

There was a few things that I wanted to do. When Zuko’s screaming at the sky, that was such a huge moment for me, rewatching it. And then I was also hoping to get to save Appa and have that conversation with Iroh… the one where he takes off the Blue Spirit mask and then he drops it in the water. I always thought that was a chef’s-kiss scene.

It sounds like you had a lot of fun playing the Blue Spirit.

Yes! Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. The Blue Spirit is like, I mean, it’s like being Batman. He’s totally a superhero, but he’s also revealing his true self through the mask because nobody knows his identity. He doesn’t have to worry about the Fire Nation, [and] he forgets about his past when he throws the mask on and is only striving to do the right thing. The energy that radiates from the Blue Spirit in a lot of those scenes, especially when he is about to capture Aang, was some of the most fun work I got to do. Even though it might feel like a simple scene where the Blue Spirit walks up, looks at [Aang], and chooses not to take his life, to me, there is more work put into those scenes than maybe some of the more emotional scenes that you see later on in the episode or in the season.

Zuko and Azula have this confrontation in the finale where Azula actually kind of apologizes and confides in him. It forces Zuko to confront what he wants in a different way, a little like the conversation he has with Iroh in the original show.

Right after the freaking conversation with Katara that was already gut-wrenching for him. And then Azula’s like, “Oh, there’s an open wound. Check this out!” [Makes stabbing motion.]

It’s crazy, when we shot that scene, I was fighting tears so much that once they yelled “cut,” we went to our green room to just hang out and I just... I was bawling. It was so painful… As much turmoil as Zuko is going through for the entirety of Season 2, it feels like that moment is the one that freezes him up the most. Typically, he’ll get caught in something and then he’ll bounce. He’s very impulsive. He gets to have a conversation with Katara and then a conversation with Azula, but that’s the one conversation where he just says nothing... It makes him revert. It was so powerful because Lizzie and I had, at that point, built such a strong friendship that, on the day, it was just like... It was seamless. The chemistry was insane.

“The Blue Spirit is like... being Batman.”

There’s a really robust fan-fiction community surrounding Avatar. You’ve mentioned before that your friends have sent you thirst edits; I’m curious if you’ve ever been sent Zuko fanfic.

I actually haven’t. I don’t have friends that are in the world of fanfic, but I’m sure that there are plenty just because of the different sections of the Avatar fandom. I’m sure there’s different ships and things like that. I’m all for Zuko and Sokka, though.

Do you have a similar bromance with Ian Ousley in real life? You guys were matching at the premiere.

I know. You know how often that happens? The next day, we went to Disneyland, and he and I were wearing the same shirt. We were wearing the same black jeans. We were wearing the same On Cloud running shoes — same size. And then we’re like, “No way we’re wearing the same boxers…” They were both striped boxers. I kid you not. [Laughs.] But yeah, he’s like a real-life brother to me.

What is next on your wish list of roles? I’ve seen a lot of people saying they want to see you play Swordmaster in the MCU.

Oh, I could get down with that. But if I did it, I would want it to be… I think Marvel is chill. They’ve got a very specific style to their movies and maybe the way it’s edited — the color, the comedy and things like that. [But] I would love for it to feel like a separate kind of world, sort of like The Batman with Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson. I think that would be just a nice little refresher for Marvel, I think, especially with Swordmaster, a newer kind of hero. But I would also love to do just straight-up Iron Fist. I would love to do The Ronin from the Star Wars: Visions episode.

Are you a Star Wars fan?

I’m getting into it because of that. I didn’t grow up on Star Wars, really… I watched some of the movies when I was a kid, [and] Darth Maul is a huge reason that I chose to use the bo staff as my primary weapon in martial arts. This summer it’s on my list to do the whole [franchise]… Because believe it or not, our showrunner, Christine Boylan, before we came into Season 2, she was like, “I want you guys to do some homework and watch Andor Season 1.” I watched it and I was like, "I love Star Wars. This is amazing."

That and Visions really took off. I think people want to see that Asian influence in Star Wars more, since George Lucas was so inspired by it.

Right. Manny Jacinto in The Acolyte was sick. He’s sick and he’s hot — what more could you ask for? I would love to do something like that… Another dream would be to do Princess Mononoke… [and] I’d love to work with the great directors of today: Denis [Villeneuve], Robert Eggers… there’s just so much intensity in his movies, which is something that I didn’t realize I loved doing in playing Zuko. So to do that with a director like him or Guillermo del Toro, who is another awesome director, Safdie Brothers — just everyone that’s making cool movies right now, I’d love to work with, which is everyone’s dream.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is streaming on Netflix.