Netflix’s One Piece and Avatar: The Last Airbender shows just got some serious season 2 cast upgrades at Geeked Week Live 2024
Avatar lands its first season 2 hire, while One Piece continues to round out its impressive cast roster
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Netflixhas announced some big-name additions to the season 2 casts of its live-actionAvatar: The Last AirbenderandOne Pieceadaptations.
Revealed as part ofNetflix Geeked Week 2024’s live event, the streaming giant confirmed that three actors – one forAvatar: The Last Airbenderseason 2, and two forOne Pieceseason 2– will join those shows' cast rosters for their next chapters.
Who is Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Toph? And who’s playing them?
On theAvatarfront, US actress Miya Cech, who some readers might recognize fromThe Santa ClausesonDisney Plusand/or Netflix’sBeef, aka one of thebest shows of 2023, has been hired to play fan-favorite character Toph. In the animated original, the blind earthbender – one of the most naturally gifted and powerful of her generation, we’ll have you know – joins Aang and the rest of Team Avatar on their quest to put an end to the Fire Nation’s quest to become the world’s tyrannical rulers.
Cech’s hiring wasn’t the onlyAvatar-related announcement made by one of the world’sbest streaming servicesduring Geeked Week Live. Netflix also confirmed that production had officially started on season 2, with principal photography beginning just six months afterNetflix announced two more seasons of itsAvatar: The Last Airbenderlive-action retelling. It’s unclear if the series' final two installments will be filmed back-to-back, but the revelation that season 2 has entered full production suggests they won’t.
Who are Miss All Sunday and Mr. 0 in One Piece? And which actors will portray them?
As forOne Piece, Netflix confirmed that its adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s beloved manga series, which has also been turned into one of thebest anime, has added two more names to its extensive cast list. Lera Abova and Geeked Week Live host Joe Manganiello are its newest hires, with the pair set to play Miss All Sunday and Mr. 0/Crocodile in the one of thebest Netflix shows' sophomore outing.
Abova, who starred inPeacockcomedy seriesPitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin, will play All Sunday, whose real name is Nico Robins and who’s the vice president of the Baroque Works, a covert criminal syndicate set up with the sole aim of destabilizing and then conquering the Arabasta Kingdom. Manganiello, whose credits range include 2002’sSpider-Manmovie,True Blood,How I Met Your Mother, and a brief cameo as Deathstroke in the now defunct DC Extended Universe (DCEU), will play the Baroque Works' mob boss/warlord.
Ironically, fans already knew that Abova and Manganiello would be part of season 2’s cast. Yesterday (September 19), Netflix’s PR team accidentally leaked the pair’s hiring on its in-house Tudum website. The information was removed not long after the error was spotted, but not beforeWhat’s on Netflixnoticed and reported on the faux-pas.
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Those weren’t the onlyOne Piece-focused unveilings that had fans salivating at Geeked Week Live and at home, though. Per theYouTubevideo above, Netflix also released a behind-the-scenes recording of season 2’s first table read, which teased the arrival of beloved character Chopper. WithNetflix strongly suggesting that season 2 ofOne Pieceseason 2 would cover the Arabasta Sagafrom its manga namesake, we already had an inkling that Chopper would show up at some point. This, though, confirms the half-reindeer, half-human hybrid will make his grand entrance next season.
As part of an earlier Geeked Week reveal, Jeff Ward, who plays the villainous Buggy the Clown, invited fans on abrief behind-the-scenes tour ofOne Pieceseason 2’s various sets, too, before hinting that the series would return sometime in 2025. If both shows return next year, it could be another successful 12-month period for Netflix on the iconic anime adaptation front.
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