Netflix's Avatar Is Back June 25, and This Time It Has Toph
Seven episodes, a new earthbender, and a new showrunner team taking the series into the Earth Kingdom.
Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender returns on June 25, 2026 with all seven season 2 episodes dropping at once. The big introduction this season is Toph Beifong, played by Miya Cech, and the story moves entirely into the Earth Kingdom.
Season 1 premiered February 22, 2024 to mixed critical reviews and a 61% on Rotten Tomatoes, but strong viewership convinced Netflix to renew for two more seasons at once. Season 3 is already in production.
AT A GLANCE • Premiere: June 25, 2026, all 7 episodes at once • Platform: Netflix • Season 2 showrunners: Christine Boylan and Jabbar Raisani • Key new cast: Miya Cech as Toph Beifong • Season arc: Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se • Season 3: already confirmed and in production |
A new showrunner team for seasons 2 and 3
Season 1 was developed by showrunner Albert Kim, who replaced original creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko after they departed the production in June 2020 citing creative differences with Netflix.
Kim has since exited, and seasons 2 and 3 now sit with co-showrunners Christine Boylan and Jabbar Raisani, both of whom were already part of the production as executive producers on season 1. This is the third showrunner configuration in the show's history.
Raisani and Boylan ran the Toph casting process together, reviewing over 6,000 submissions before landing on Miya Cech.
Who is Toph, and why this casting matters
Toph Beifong is a blind earthbending prodigy who becomes Aang's earthbending teacher. In the original animated series, she was created by DiMartino and Konietzko for Nickelodeon's Book Two: Earth, which aired in 2006 and won a 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. Toph is one of the most beloved characters in the franchise.
Raisani's reaction when they found Miya Cech: "Miya is a brilliant performer who knows how to precisely balance the sarcastic sense of humor, stubbornness, and vulnerability that is Toph Beifong. Her physicality and emotional dexterity really put her in a class of one."
Cech is of Chinese and Japanese American descent and has appeared in Beef, Young Rock, and You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.
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What the production did differently for Toph
Playing a blind character in a physically demanding role required specific preparation that the production took seriously. The team brought in blindness consultant Joe Strechay to work with Cech on Toph's physical language, specifically how she touches surfaces, plants her feet, and reads the world through the ground beneath her.
Season 2 also used significantly more practical sets and locations than season 1. Ba Sing Se, the massive walled Earth Kingdom capital, was built as a physical set rather than relying on digital environments.
What the season actually covers
After season 1 ended with a bittersweet victory at the Northern Water Tribe, Aang, Katara, and Sokka head deep into the Earth Kingdom. Their goal: convince the Earth King to join the fight against Fire Lord Ozai.
Along the way, Aang finds Toph and begins earthbending training. The group eventually reaches Ba Sing Se, where they uncover a large-scale conspiracy running beneath the city's surface.
The full returning cast:
• Gordon Cormier as Aang
• Kiawentiio as Katara
• Ian Ousley as Sokka
• Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko
• Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh
• Elizabeth Yu as Princess Azula
• Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai
• Momona Tamada as Ty Lee
• Thalia Tran as Mai
New additions alongside Miya Cech: Terry Chen as Jeong Jeong, Dolly de Leon as Lo and Li, Lily Gao as Ursa, Madison Hu as Fei, and Dichen Lachman as Yangchen.
WHAT WRITERS CAN TAKE FROM THIS • Introducing a new character mid-series is a structural challenge. Toph joins an established group dynamic in episode one of a second season. The production spent months on casting alone because getting that entrance wrong derails the entire arc. • Sensory worldbuilding goes beyond description. Toph experiences the world through vibration and touch. The production hired a consultant to make that physical. If your character has a non-standard relationship with the world around them, that specificity shows on the page. • A conspiracy inside an institution is a different kind of antagonist. Ba Sing Se's internal threat works because the danger comes from within a place that looked safe. That structure — safety revealed as false — is one of the most durable setups in fantasy writing. • Practical sets change how actors perform. The shift away from digital environments was deliberate. For writers, the equivalent is specificity of place: a setting your characters can physically interact with behaves differently on the page than a backdrop. |
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Sources
Netflix Tudum — Avatar: The Last Airbender Cast Miya Cech as Toph (official)
Variety — Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 Sets Release Date (2026); Toph Actress Revealed as Miya Cech (2024)
Deadline — Meet Miya Cech's Toph Beifong in Season 2 (June 2026)
TVLine — Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 Full Trailer Introduces Live-Action Toph
TV Insider — Season 2 cast, plot, and premiere details