Kids

Dolly de Leon, Jon Jon Briones Join The Cast of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender

by Kevyn Gohu
May 21, 2025

Dolly de Leon and Jon Jon Briones take on the role of two pivotal characters from the Avatar: The Last Airbender series — Lo and Li for Dolly de Leon and Piandao for Jon Jon Briones

A lot of millennial parents spent their childhood afternoons on Nickelodeon watching Avatar: The Last Airbender as an animated series. So, for it to join Netflix as a live-action series earned some skepticism, especially when shows failed to satisfy the fans. But it seems Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender is doing well, as Season 2 is now in production. The cast now includes two famous Philippine actors: Dolly de Leon and Jon Jon Briones.

Dolly de Leon will be taking on the dual role of Lo and Li, while Jon Jon Briones will play the role of swordmaster Piandao.

Photo from dollyedeleon

Who are Li and Lo?

For those who watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, Lo and Li are elder twin sisters who serve as advisers to Zuko’s younger sister, Princess Azula, and made their debut in Season 2 (otherwise known as Book of Earth). They often accompany her on her journey, especially when the princess is then tasked by her father, Firelord Ozai, to capture the Avatar and bring home her brother and her uncle, Zuko and Iroh, who are considered traitors to the Fire Nation.

While their role isn’t too explicit in the animation series, the little screentime Lo and Li had with Azula serves as a foil to the kind of guidance Zuko gets from Iroh. Lo and Li, unlike Iroh, have the same ruthless stance as most Fire Nation’s rulers. They push Azula to pursue nothing but perfection as her firebending mentors, even though they couldn’t wield fire themselves.

Despite not being able to do so, Azula still heeds their advice and is probably the closest thing she has to a parent. With her mother, Ursa, banished, and Ozai doing his own thing, they are the ones she turns to for advice. It shows in the animation series when she decides to abandon the accompanying battalion (also known as the Royal Procession) for something much smaller: an elite team composed of her “friends” — knife-throwing expert Mai and martial artist and gymnast Ty-Lee.

Photo from jonjonbriones

Who is Piandao?

In the animated series, Piandao is a swordsmaster from the Fire Nation who trained both Prince Zuko and Sokka. Unlike most of the nobles or higher members of the Fire Nation, he does not discriminate among his students. As he says, “The art of the sword belongs to no one.” In fact, he even helps Sokka blend in better as the latter used his real name, making it too obvious that he belonged to the Water Tribe.

However, Piandao fills an important role for Sokka as his mentor and somewhat father figure — at least in the ways of the sword. All the main characters had a mentor, while Sokka had to get by with his wits and his trusty boomerang. Also, Sokka and Katara’s father had been fighting the Fire Nation and was captured at some point. Much of Sokka’s battle knowledge had been based on experience, which Piandao refines in the series and the comics.

Will their roles be bigger compared to the animated series?

Since Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender doesn’t exactly follow the animated series, there’s a good chance that their roles may be bigger. Lo and Li didn’t have many lines in the animated series, but they were known to be a contributing factor as to why Azula had become so power hungry. As to how Dolly de Leon will pull that off, we’re pretty excited to see.

On the other hand, Jon Jon Briones already has some experience in teaching martial arts. He actively teaches his own kids arnis, even highlighting it in some of the shows he’s cast in. How he’ll integrate that as Piandao as he teaches the live-action’s Sokka will be interesting since the animated version had some goofy moments that indulged the younger swordsman’s antics.

Catch the Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action series on Netflix!