Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Netflix's 'Avatar: The Last Airbender.'
The Big Picture
- Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is the perfect person to play Uncle Iroh in Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- The live-action Avatar incorporates Iroh's multifaceted characterization earlier than the cartoon, which lets Lee subtly convey Iroh's emotional complexity with depth, wisdom, and compassion.
- Paul Sun-Hyung Lee shines despite the series' darker tone, honoring Iroh's legacy and proving why his character remains beloved.
Nearly 20 years after its debut on Nickelodeon, Avatar: The Last Airbender remains a fiercely beloved series. Time has been more than kind to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko's cartoon, as Avatar has few rough edges to soften with rose-colored nostalgia glasses. Instead, the series making its streaming debut in 2020 (on Netflix, no less) amplified its sterling reputation. Avatar is a tapestry comprised of a memorable setting, a reverence for the martial arts media that came before, and the kind of nurtured character growth that should be taught in curriculums. Perhaps no character is held more dear than Iroh, uncle to the Fire Nation's disgraced Prince Zuko. Iroh is just one moving part of Avatar's ensemble, a character slate that Netflix's live-action adaptation — overseen by Albert Kim — faced an uphill battle to cast, with Iroh being Mount Everest. Until Netflix announced Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, that is. Lee stepping into Iroh's sage shoes is the best casting coup and by far the best part of this second live-action experiment. The series' remarkably talented headliners, including Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Dallas Liu, and Elizabeth Yu, seem born for their jobs. Like the original series, however, Iroh — character and actor — operates on another level.
Avatar: The Last Airbender (Live-Action)
TV-14ActionAdventureComedy610A young boy known as the Avatar must master the four elemental powers to save the world and fight against an enemy bent on stopping him.
- Release Date
- February 22, 2024
- Creator
- Albert Kim
- Cast
- Daniel Dae Kim , Paul Sun-Hyung Lee , Ken Leung , Tamlyn Tomita , Gordon Cormier , Kiawentiio
- Main Genre
- Adventure
- Seasons
- 1
Who Is Uncle Iroh in ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’?
Given Uncle Iroh's legendary status with fans and his keenly multifaceted personality, playing the role almost requires Paul Sun-Hyung Lee to stand out. Originally voiced by Mako and Greg Baldwin, Iroh's bright and chipper personality leaves audiences instantly enamored. Who can resist this affable, quirky elderly gentleman who loves tea, dispenses sage wisdom, and responds to his nephew's tantrums with the drollest sarcasm? Iroh acts as the soothing yang to Zuko's (Dante Basco) tempestuous yin, a balance the young monarch badly needs. As Avatar slowly reveals, part of that means Iroh fills a hole in Zuko's life: that of a loving father. Emotionally abused and physically scarred by his father, Fire Lord Ozai (Mark Hamill), and banished from his home on a hopeless quest to capture the Avatar, Zuko is a lonely, terrified, and lost young man. The tyrannical Ozai repaid his heir's morally upstanding instincts with trauma. Zuko desperately needs guidance that's supportive, selfless, and empathetic instead of manipulative.
Iroh knows trauma well. A former general in the Fire Nation army and a Firebending master, Iroh participated in his family's cycle of global conquest with little thought to the lives his actions ruined. A personal tragedy brought the world into proper context. Iroh took corrective measures to absolve himself of his past flaws, or at least pour kindness into a broken world in dire need of it. He's friendly and laughs with ease. His goals are humble. He's also a guilt-ridden soldier, an eternally grieving father, the moral flip side to Ozai's coin, a Firebender tutored by dragons, and the only person in Zuko's life to show compassion to a helpless child. His refined characterization and hard-won guidance set him apart from the adolescent journeys of Avatar: The Last Airbender's other characters. Iroh has already lived, lost, and sought redemption. Voiced with equal parts comforting wit and heartwrenching poignancy by Mako and Greg Baldwin, everyone longs for their real-life Iroh equivalent. He's our light at the end of the tunnel, especially when the flame's flickering feels distant and faint.
How Is Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s Iroh Different?
The animated series teases out Iroh’s layers to great effect. Live-action Avatar showrunner Albert Kim chooses to introduce and expand that much earlier. It might be a symptom of the show's rushed pacing, but in Iroh's case, frontloading his complexity gives Paul Sun-Hyung Lee meatier material. He brings everything that’s needed to the table with consummate ease. He sparkles despite Netflix’s darker tone minimizing the character's good-natured comedy. There's not always a default twinkle in this Iroh's eye, but when he deploys that cheer, its sincerity rises above the grim tone. Lee and Dallas Liu as Zuko are a natural pair in both humor and solemnity; all Lee needs is one quirked eyebrow and Liu an exasperated sigh to sell this fragile but profound dynamic.
Toning down the cartoon's humor actually grants Lee's Iroh a fascinating edge. If Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko created Iroh to be unassuming, the ultimate ace up their sleeves, then Lee suggests that the Dragon of the West is just napping with one eye open. If you're one of Iroh's rare enemies, you should never lower your guard. Yet General Zhao (Ken Leung) still does, because a less compassionate Iroh could out-strategize the world. It's a testament to Lee's skill that this adjustment doesn't ring false but like an Iroh glimpsed through a different lens: a close-up instead of a wide shot. The original Avatar does imply that Iroh's love for the world's simplicities emerged in response to Lu Ten's death — a lasting trauma response that became healing.
‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Has Lived on Beyond the Original Show
The world of 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' has seen a number of spin-offs in various media, which have contributed to its legacy.Episode 4, "Into the Dark," triumphs in this regard. Even though Iroh led a 600-day siege on the Earth Kingdom stronghold of Ba Sing Se, the animated series rarely grapples with Iroh's culpability as a war general. The consequences are personal: Iroh's son, Lu Ten, died during the siege. In his grief, Iroh surrendered the battle, his duties, and any claim to the throne. "Into the Dark" expands the source material and fills in the blank spots by adjusting a storyline from the cartoon, when Earth Kingdom soldiers capture Iroh while he's blissfully soaking in a hot spring. For "Into the Dark," Iroh lets himself be captured to ensure Zuko's safe escape. As the Earth Kingdom soldiers transport him, one officer holds Iroh accountable for Ba Sing Se. The soldier lost his brother during those 600 days; to paraphrase his words, a 19-year-old boy was burned to ashes. Because this man's despair has warped him, his hatred for Iroh is venomous bordering on murderous.
The confrontation forces Iroh to reckon with the consequences of his actions face-to-face. Surprisingly, he does so with an impenetrable veneer instead of compassion or regret. Anger simmers underneath, which Iroh holds steady, but can easily release. He doesn't; that would actually betray Iroh's character. Lee's grasp on Iroh never falters, imbuing the moment with the sense that Iroh's fury is self-directed. He likely sees his loss reflected in this younger man. One moment, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee makes an inferno spark in Iroh's eyes without CGI, then a chasm of grief the next.
Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Spotlights Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s Iroh
Where Episode 4 goes for the kill is that "next," a brand new scene depicting Lu Ten's funeral. For a series burdened by exposition, Lee establishes his Iroh with minimal dialogue. In early episodes, he implies love, wisdom, guilt, righteous defense of the innocent, and skirts at despair's edges. As Iroh sits next to his son's casket in Episode 4, Lee is devastating. His silence is almost absolute, and his body language that of someone emotionally disemboweled. The tears are quiet but the raw grief echoes. He conveys the isolating loneliness of a funeral filled with empty words, and the loss of what once defined Iroh's world and that will evolve his moral compass. Once Zuko breaks from his family's callous cruelty by sitting with Iroh, Lee's shift into resolved stillness intimates that Zuko is all that kept Iroh alive.
It's no wonder Zuko's uncle joins him in exile. Even more, Iroh does so selflessly. He's returning his unpayable debt to Zuko with no expectation of reciprocity, and not because Zuko becomes Lu Ten's replacement. Avatar's character moments often feel scattered or forced, but Lee and Liu's dynamic rings the most true to the cartoon's intent. Partially that's because these specific moments allow the actors time to breathe and the characters room for introspection. The pair's interactions become naturalistic. But although there's room for Avatar to improve, its show-not-tell writing and cramped pacing are its biggest downfalls. Lee is an actor capable of rising above a script's limitations and elevating already outstanding work.
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee Is the Perfect Uncle Iroh
An existing Avatar fan, playing Iroh was a meaningful role for Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. After Netflix announced the adaptation and before he auditioned, his casting was already a fan favorite thanks to his history on Kim’s Convenience and The Mandalorian. Once Lee did audition, he didn't learn it was Uncle Iroh until the first callback. “Right away I got super nervous," Lee told the Toronto Star. "The stakes went up and I really wanted this part."
Lee elaborated in his exclusive Collider interview: "I watched [Avatar], fell in love with it, was completely over the moon, and then shortly after I got fancast as Iroh, and I was like, “Oh my god, that's amazing! I love Iroh!” But I couldn't do it because I was working on another show, and I thought, “Well, maybe one day.” And then that maybe one day actually happened. [...] I was excited to do it, but also a little bit nervous because big shoes to fill and a high, high, high set of expectations."
Lee does more than do Iroh justice. He's the only person who could assume this role with the right heart, dignity, poise, and pathos. Iroh being Mako's last role before his passing in 2006 makes the character's lasting appeal bittersweet and oddly sacred. One can imagine anyone feeling intimidated at the responsibility. In Lee's hands, Iroh isn't just the Dragon of the West, he's a being of immense power and infinite wisdom operating in defense of the innocent. Iroh is a protector, a leader, a healer, a devious prankster, a fiend for tea, and a phoenix rising from his flaws. After a long career of playing "a lot of doctors, a lot of store clerks, a lot of window dressing-type caricatures, not characters," as Lee put it, he's finally been afforded the worldwide spotlight. He seizes it the way Uncle Iroh would, with grace, goodwill, and a goofball's heart.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is streaming on Netflix.
