Dave Bautista and Eric Nam are set to headline the voice cast for the upcoming “Avatar: The Last Airbender” movie in development at Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Studios. The film’s working title is “Aang: The Last Airbender.” The news was announced during Paramount’s slate presentation at CinemaCon.
Joining Bautista and Nam in the voice cast are Dionne Quan, Jessica Matten and Roman Zaragoza. Plot details for the film remain under wraps. Bautista will voice a villain character. The new “Avatar” animated film is set for release on Oct. 10, 2025 from Paramount.
The studios announced in June 2022 that three standalone “Avatar” animated films were in development. The 2025 film was the first to get a release date. Lauren Montgomery, who worked on the original “Avatar: The Last Airbender” series, is directing the project, with original series creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko executive producing alongside Eric Coleman. William Mata is co-directing.
The original animated “Avatar” series ran from 2005 to 2008 on Nickelodeon, with “The Legend of Korra” continuing its story from 2012 to 2014. The shows follow the adventures of the mystical Avatar, a person who can master all four elements of nature: air, water, earth and fire. The original series starred Avatar Aang, who must learn to master the elements to defeat the evil Fire Nation with his friends Katara, Sokka and Toph. Netflix released a live-action version of the show earlier this year.
During the same CinemaCon presentation, Paramount also revealed the voice cast for Rihanna’s new animated “Smurfs” movie. The music icon is voicing Smurfette and creating original music for the movie. She’ll be joined by Nick Offerman, Natasha Lyonne, JP Karliak, Daniel Levy, Amy Sedaris, Nick Kroll, James Corden, Octavia Spencer, Hannah Waddingham, Sandra Oh, Alex Winter, Billie Lourd, Xolo Maridueña, Kurt Russell and John Goodman. “The Smurfs” movie is set for release on Feb. 15, 2025.
The studio also announced the original “Spongebob Squarepants” voice cast will return for “The Spongebob Movie: Search for Sequarepants,” which is set for a Dec. 19, 2025 theatrical release. The cast includes Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants), Clancy Brown (Mr. Krabs), Rodger Bumpass (Squidward), Bill Fagerbakke (Patrick), Carolyn Lawrence (Sandy) and Mr. Lawrence (Plankton).
