This year brought Nickelodeon’s cast and crew of Avatar out to San Diego Comic Con for yet another amazing panel that had fans spending the night in line just to get into. Thankfully, if you missed it, we have footage of it down below that you can now enjoy. But first, lets talk a little about season two of Avatar: The Legend of Korra and what happened at the panel.

Season 2 of The Legend of Korra is titled Book 2: Spirits, keeping with the season titling of ‘Books’ that have existed since Avatar: The Last Airbender first appeared. This isn’t necessarily new news, as it was first revealed back at San Diego Comic Con last year, during the Avatar panel. There we saw many new characters that would appear in Spirits, as well as a small preview that we would later find takes place during episode 1 this year. However, now going into the panel we know a little bit more about the Book 2 characters and who voices them. First let’s talk about the water bending twins that have got the most attention out of new characters in the upcoming season, Eska and Desna. The twins are Korra’s cousins from the Northern Water Tribe, with Eska being played by Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation, The To Do List) and Desna being played by Aaron Himelstein (Joan of Arcadia). Plaza seems a perfect choice of actress for Eska, as the character resembles her somewhat in appearance and a lot in the personality of Plaza’s infamous Parks and Rec character. Eska is the princess of the Northern Water Tribe, and seemingly a potential love interest for Bolin based on the first episode of season 2. The twins’ father, Unalaq, is of course the head of the Northern Water Tribe, in addition to being the Avatar’s uncle. Unalaq is voiced by Adrian LaTourelle (Sons of Anarchy), and is likely to have a very big role in the upcoming season. Another character that is likely to make waves and play a questionable role in Book 2 is Verrick, portrayed by John Michael Higgins (Best In Show), a rich business man who seems to have his sights set on Future Industries, the company belonging to Asami. Finally, the one you’ve all undoubtedly wanted to know more about, is Aang’s third child, Kya. After meeting Tenzen through Book 1 and seeing Bumi in the end of last season, I’m sure we all can’t wait to see what Aang and Katara’s daughter, Kya, is like. Portrayed by Lisa Edelstein (House MD), expect a lot of story to follow the 3 descendents of the previous Avatar as they vacation around the various air temples of the Avatar world. Now, on to the panel!

The Avatar panel took place once again in ballroom 20 this year, starting Friday, July 19th, at 11:15AM. People had literally lined up outside of the convention center over 12 hours prior to get decent seating for the panel, but if you were lucky you might have hopped in line as early as 9:30AM (right after the convention hall opened) and made your way into one of the sparse free seats that quickly filled as the panel began. It was undoubtedly a packed house, with over 5,000 fans in attendance, yelling and screaming as the cast and crew took the stage. On panel for the creative side was Bryan Konietzko & Michael DiMartino, the creators of Avatar, and Joaquin Dos Santos, the series co-executive producer. Representing the cast of Avatar was the voice of Korra, Janet Varney, the voice of Mako, David Faustino, and the always hilarious voice of Bolin, PJ Byrne, who brought along a stuffed Pabu to join them on panel.

The panelists first discussed a few changes and additions to the staff of Avatar for season 2 of The Legend of Korra. Taking over writing was DiMartino, Josh Hamilton, and Tim Hedrick. Hamilton and Hedrick were both writers on The Last Airbender era of Avatar, and helped take over duties for Konietzko as they wrapped up season 1 of Korra. Bryan Konietzko still obviously has a lot to do with the scripting process, along with others like Dos Santos, Lauren Montgomery (the series’ Supervising Producer), and Ki-Hyun Ryu (Supervising Editor). The crew also brought on directors Colin Heck and Ian Graham to direct many of the episodes for season 2 of Korra. In fact, Colin Heck directed the premiere episode of season 2…which was aired in the first half of the panel at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Fans were ecstatic to have this first look at the new season, well before it aired on television.

To give the briefest of summaries of what happened in the season 2 premiere, the storyline takes place half a year after season 1 ended. A fair amount of the episode deals with the aftermath, as we learn what everyone has since been up to. But the core of what will likely start the Book 2 storyline begins at the Southern Water Tribe, where an annual festival of sorts was being held, leading to members of the Northern Water Tribe coming down to visit. The Northern Water Tribe’s leader, Korra’s uncle, Unalaq, is rather discontent that many of his people are celebrating the festival with fireworks and a fair, as he believes this is disrespecting the spirit aspect. This seems like a much more relevant argument after a Spirit attacks Southern Water Tribe at night. Team Avatar fights it in an epic battle that sees them all quickly beat, as even Tenzen is defeated. Thankfully, Korra’s uncle calms the spirit. It is then that Korra decides to begin training under her uncle, to better understand the spirit realm, as she feels overly confident in her airbending abilities. In this episode, we also get to see Aang’s children to a larger extent than in the previous season. Tenzen decides to go on a vacation that might lead to large side story as his family travels the air temples with Bumi and Kya. That said, the episode ends with Tenzen kinda pouty after the battle with the spirit, leaving Korra to go off with her uncle for training. As the lights came up, you could actually see Janet Varney rather teary eyed, having watched the episode for the first time with the rest of us in the audience.

After the episode, the cast answered a few questions before Brian started sharing the story of the Avatar’s origin (the re-birthing cycle, not the TV series) and how they came up with the idea back around season 2 of The Last Airbender. He then went on to discuss how this would appear in Book 2 of Korra and showed how the art would change for this story, talking about its origins in early asian art (such as ancient inkwash paintings and woodblock prints) that would be incorporated into the background and settings. He says comic artist Josh Middleton helped out on some of the art direction. Furthermore, Bryan emphasized Studio Mir’s brilliant work on these 2 episodes. Wan (voiced by The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun) is the name of the original avatar, 10,000 years before Korra’s time.

Following that insightful look at season 2, the crew showed off some of the fan art from a recent Avatar art contest. As might be expected, much of the art was tagged with a lot of tumblr link backs. Bryan pointed out, rather tongue in cheek, that drawing Naga or the creators is an easy way to get their attention and win such a contest. The crew then mentioned their signing at the Nickelodeon booth after the panel with free posters and a beautiful, limited edition print drawn by Lauren Montgomery (pictured below).

Now for the big news, when is Avatar: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits finally coming to a television near you? While Nickelodeon has yet to give us a specific date, the big announcement is that the show will finally be arriving this September at some point. Keep checking back for the specific day and time, but that’s a start at the very least. Until then, there are several other amazing Avatar items to invest your time and money in. Aside from the popular selling Avatar Soundtrack that recently released and topped the charts, Dark Horse has several very awesome Avatar items. Avatar: The Last Airbender continues telling the tale of Aang in comic form thanks to Gene Luen Yang and the creators, Bryan and Michael, via Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise and Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search, of which the latter recently saw its second volume released. But for Korra fans, you might want to pick up the brand new Legend of Korra art book by Bryan and Michael, which contains an in depth look at the animated series and how it all came together. And of course, let us not forget the Legend of Korra season 1 DVD and Blu-ray also just saw release.

Legend of Korra Art Book 1 cover

For more news and information about Avatar, keep checking up with us here at Speak Geeky To Me, as we have plenty more to share. Coming soon we have a full video interview with the creators of Avatar and the comic writer, Gene Luen Yang, that was done live on the show floor at San Diego Comic Con. But if you want to view the panel yourself, we have you covered. Watch the entire Avatar panel (minus episode 1 of Book 2 and a bit of things edited out for time) down below, courtesy of Nickelodeon.

Special thanks to Anthony Snellings, for on-site coverage.