- NOTE: This article is about the 2010 film The Last Airbender version of Zuko. You may be looking for information on his original counterpart.
Prince Zuko is the secondary antagonist of the 2010 action adventure fantasy film The Last Airbender, which is based on Book 1: Water of the 2005-2008 animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender.
He is the prince of the Fire Nation who desires to find and capture the Avatar, and the son of Fire Lord Ozai.
He was portrayed by Dev Patel.
Personality[]
Not much is established with Zuko's character in the movie except that he desperately wants to capture Aang for the sake of redeeming himself and erase any memory of his banishment. Director M. Night Shyamalan did add a little sympathy to his character, which proved that he isn't pure evil, but misunderstood and desperate to be welcomed back home.
Biography[]
The prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko was born to Fire Lord Ozai and is the older brother of Princess Azula. Ozai neglected Zuko and eventually challenged him in Agni Kai for speaking out to a general in defense of some of his friends that are going to die in battle. Zuko refused to go against his father, thus Ozai burned and banished him until the latter can find the Avatar, forcing General Iroh to take care of Zuko ever since. Despite this, Ozai still keeps an eye on Zuko's quest, and dismisses Admiral Zhao's accusation of the boy betraying him.
Despite Iroh's advice to let it go, Zuko still determines to find the Avatar at all cost. After Zhao captures Aang, Zuko dresses as the Blue Spirit to spy on Zhao, and taking down many of the latter's soldiers before breaking Aang free, knowing that he has to capture the latter himself to return home. Suspecting the Blue Spirit to be none other than the prince, Zhao reports this to Ozai in order to remove Zuko from competition, but Ozai dismissed his claim.
Zuko then follows the Gaang to the Northern Water Tribe city and has a duel with Katara, knocking her unconscious. He then chases Aang to the storage room and the two have an intense fight, ended with Aang encasing Zuko in a block of ice. After the Gaang leave, he uses his fire power to free himself. Zuko then confronts Zhao on a bridge and is nearly killed until Iroh rescues him. Zuko and Iroh then leave Zhao alone on the bridge and disappear.
It's unknown what happened to Zuko and Iroh afterwards.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Dev Patel, who played Prince Zuko in the film, later expressed regret and dislike for his role and his experience with the film. In a 2016 actor's roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter while promoting his film Lion during Oscar contenders' season sitting alongside Mahershala Ali, Andrew Garfield, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Casey Affleck and Jeff Bridges, Patel said "I don't know what I would like to play, but I know what I'm afraid of playing: those big studio movies. After Slumdog, I did a film that was not well-received at all. The budget of Slumdog was like the budget of the craft services of this movie." He added "I completely felt overwhelmed by the experience. I felt like I wasn't being heard. That was really scary for me, and that's really when I learned the power of 'no', the idea of saying 'no'. Listen to that instinct you get when you read those words for the first time.". He described his performance as Fire Prince Zuko as being as though he "saw a stranger on the screen" that he couldn't relate to.
External Links[]
- Zuko on the Avatar Wiki