In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the most spectacular fighters can summon fire, move walls of earth, turn water into a weapon or send opponents flying with air.

Suki can do none of those things.

Yet when Maria Zhang’s Kyoshi Warrior steps into a fight, she rarely feels outmatched. That is partly the point of the character: Suki lives in a world filled with supernatural fighters, but her strength comes from discipline, technique and years of training rather than bending.

What makes Netflix’s live-action version even more interesting is that Zhang did not arrive at the role as an actor starting completely from zero physically. Before Avatar, she had already spent years training in real combat sports — experience that gave her a foundation when the production began turning Suki’s animated movements into something a human performer could convincingly execute.

And with Season 2 giving Suki a considerably larger place in the story, that physical foundation matters more than ever.

Maria Zhang Had Real Fighting Experience Before Becoming Suki

Zhang told LA Weekly Asia that she had trained for roughly two to three years in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and boxing, alongside her regular fitness training. She believed that experience gave her a useful base when preparing to play a Kyoshi Warrior.

That does not mean the production simply told Zhang to fight the way she already knew.

Avatar required something much more specific.

The franchise has always treated martial arts as part of its storytelling language. Netflix has explained that the major bending disciplines draw from recognizable martial-arts traditions: firebending from Northern Shaolin influences, waterbending from tai chi, earthbending from southern Chinese systems such as hung ga and fut gar, while Aang’s airbending preparation incorporated bagua and wushu.

Suki presents a different challenge.

She is not an earthbender simply because she comes from the Earth Kingdom. She is a non-bender whose survival depends on learning how to fight people who can literally weaponize the elements.

That makes every block, throw and weapon movement important.

She Didn’t Grow Up Watching Avatar — Then the Audition Gave It Away

Zhang’s path to Suki also began differently from that of cast members who had grown up as fans of the Nickelodeon series.

Because Zhang spent much of her childhood in Beijing, she has said that she had not watched Avatar: The Last Airbender before auditioning.

The audition itself was deliberately secretive. Zhang recalled receiving material under a code name, with “dummy” audition pages rather than scenes lifted directly from the actual scripts. But one especially recognizable line remained, allowing her to work out that she was probably auditioning for Suki.

Once she realized what the project was, Zhang went back to the source.

She watched the animated series as preparation and became invested in the character she was trying to play. In a later interview, she said she watched the original through and came to love it before learning she had won the role.

For an actor whose previous screen work had been far smaller, joining one of Netflix’s most closely watched fantasy adaptations was a dramatic jump. Zhang later described seeing herself in a project of that scale as feeling almost unreal.

Then came the difficult part: making Suki fight.

Suki Needed a Fighting Language of Her Own

Netflix’s stunt team did not approach every character with interchangeable choreography.

Zhang explained that the action was tailored around individual characters and their personalities. For Suki, that meant building movement around martial arts rather than an elemental bending discipline. Her previous Brazilian jiu-jitsu and boxing training helped give her something physical to build from.

Stunt coordinator Jeff Aro has offered another important piece of the puzzle.

Aro said the Kyoshi Warriors were especially enjoyable to design because they needed a distinctive physical vocabulary despite having no bending. The team leaned into the warriors’ Japanese influences, incorporating techniques such as Aikido along with their signature fans.

That choice fits Suki particularly well.

A fighter like Zuko can finish a movement with a blast of fire. Katara can redirect an opponent and follow the motion with water. An earthbender can plant their feet and make the environment itself respond.

Suki receives no supernatural finish.

Her technique has to be the payoff.

That makes Zhang’s performance unusually dependent on whether viewers believe her balance, reactions, positioning and control. The metal fans are not just costume accessories; they help define how the Kyoshi Warriors defend themselves in a world where an enemy may be able to throw a fireball from several yards away.

Not Having Bending Is Part of What Makes Suki Important

Netflix describes Suki as the highly skilled leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, an elite all-female force devoted to protecting their community and carrying forward Avatar Kyoshi’s ideals.

Her lack of bending also connects her naturally with Sokka.

Both characters exist beside people with extraordinary powers. Neither can manipulate an element. Their usefulness has to come from training, judgment, weapons, courage and the willingness to keep improving.

Ian Ousley, who plays Sokka, has even described the absence of bending as something that makes Sokka especially human and relatable within the fantasy world.

Suki represents a more advanced version of that idea when they meet.

She already knows who she is as a warrior.

In Season 1, that confidence helped make Zhang memorable even though Suki’s story was largely centered on Kyoshi Island. Sokka encounters someone whose fighting ability cannot be dismissed simply because she lacks elemental power — because he lacks it too.

Season 2 finally gives the live-action series room to push that idea much further.

Season 2 Takes Suki Beyond Kyoshi Island

Netflix released the seven-episode second season on June 25, 2026, moving Aang, Katara and Sokka deeper into the Earth Kingdom as they search for the Earth King and an earthbending teacher for Aang.

Suki is no longer confined to her isolated home.

Netflix’s official character description says she has taken the Kyoshi Warriors’ training beyond Kyoshi Island, helping protect villages and refugees throughout the Earth Kingdom. Her path eventually reconnects with Team Avatar, placing both her fighting skills and her unresolved connection with Sokka inside a much larger conflict.

It is a significant expansion.

The animated Suki was always formidable, but Netflix’s version allows her to become part of the Earth Kingdom story much earlier and more consistently. Instead of existing mainly as someone the heroes meet and later encounter again, she increasingly operates as a warrior responding independently to the consequences of the Fire Nation’s campaign.

For Zhang, that also means the physical work introduced in Season 1 is no longer merely a memorable showcase.

It is becoming central to the character.

Suki may never raise a mountain, throw lightning or command an ocean.

She does not need to.

The more Avatar expands her role, the clearer the contrast becomes: in a world where power often arrives as a supernatural gift, Suki’s power is something she had to learn — and Maria Zhang brought some real experience with that idea before she ever picked up a Kyoshi Warrior’s fan.