OG Cabbage Merchant in Avatar: The Last Airbender Reprises His Role in the Live Adaptation
You might not know his name, but you know his story.
(SPOT.ph) The live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender drops on Netflix today. Besides Dallas Liu as Zuko, one thing fans are most excited about is the return of the Cabbage Merchant from the original animated series.
You know, that unnamed and unlucky man who screams “my cabbages!” as a running gag in the show. His cart of produce is never safe, always being tackled or trampled on by Aang and his friends in battle. Fandom.com lists his enemies as "the passport attendant, Team Avatar, people and animals who destroy his cabbages."
Also read: Filipino-Canadian Gordon Cormier Is the New Avatar—Here's What We Know About Him
American-Chinese actor James Sie voice the Cabbage Merchant in the OG series, whose total screen time across two seasons only lasted one minute and a half (he doesn’t appear in Season 3, but he does get mentioned in “The Ember Island Players” episode when the playwright said he consulted with “a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage”). Still, Sie wasn't expecting a one-time character would become so memorable to the whole show.
“I never invested too much in his backstory because I didn’t think he would be coming back,” Sie told Slate. “I just knew that he had a deep, abiding, somewhat strange attachment to his produce. That was my guiding principle, that he loved his cabbages.”
Also read: Avatar: The Last Airbender's First Trailer Has Started the Healing Process
Who is James Sie, the returning voice of the Cabbage Merchant in Avatar: The Last Airbender?
Showrunner Albert Kim praised Sie as a major celebrity on set—it was unmatched enthusiasm from the cast and crew for his participation.
"I've got to say, we had a lot of big names. He was probably the biggest celebrity we had on set," Kim told Entertainment Weekly. "Everyone wanted to take a selfie with James, especially when he got into his costume, myself included."
Before he was Cabbage Merchant, Sie became known as a Jackie Chan impersonator who voiced minor characters in Danny Phantom, W.I.T.C.H., and Kung Fu Panda. In spite of his vast television and film credits, he is still best known for his roles in Avatar: The Last Airbender like Kyoshi Island leader Oyaji and other additional characters on top of being the Cabbage Merchant.
OG creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino might have left the Netflix production two years into development in 2020 due to creative differences, but at least the Cabbage Merchant is safe with us.
Also read: Meet the New Faces Joining Netflix's Live-Action Avatar: The Last Airbender
this strange new world.