Why Gordon Cormier Envies One Piece’s Monkey D. Luffy

Netflix has made a significant mark by creating live-action adaptations of popular animated series. While some adaptations struggled to capture an audience, “One Piece” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender” have emerged as two of the streaming service’s biggest hits. Recently, the team at ComicBook had the chance to speak with Gordon Cormier about the success and promising future of “Avatar.” Interestingly, Cormier shared his thoughts on what he envied about Inaki Godoy, the young actor who portrays Monkey D. Luffy, while gearing up to return to the world of bending.

It’s likely that “One Piece’s” second season will debut before “Avatar: The Last Airbender’s” season two. The former is currently in production and has revealed several new actors who will join the Straw Hats as they explore locales like Drum Island, Loguetown, and Little Garden. If “Avatar’s” second season stays true to its source material, expect much of the story to unfold in the Earth Kingdom, with Aang focusing on mastering his earth-bending skills.

At this year’s Dragon Con, Gordon Cormier, the live-action Aang, spoke about his friendship with Inaki Godoy, the live-action Luffy. Cormier expressed his admiration for Godoy’s social media presence, “I love Inaki. He’s the best. I think he just turned 22. I saw his birthday post. He posts the same photo every single year with the same caption but changes the number. It’s so sick. I wish I would have thought of that so I could hit, like, 11.”

Cormier also discussed how social media served as a barometer for the success of the live-action “Avatar,” “I remember when ‘Wednesday’ came out, I think I watched it about a month later, and I started seeing all this stuff on Instagram. I was like, whoa, this thing is really blowing up. Everybody knows it. But then with ‘Avatar,’ it was one of those things where it’s like, whoa, my Instagram just blew up, but that’s all I have to know if it did good or not. So it was really interesting.”