Coming to DVD retailers near you: On May 22nd, 2007, Nick will release the Book 2, Volume 3 DVD.  DVD Empire is the source of this news.

Box art for Volume 3 is here.  The DVD will contain the episodes "The Desert," "The Serpent's Pass," "The Drill," "City of Walls and Secrets" and "The Tales of Ba Sing Se."  No special features are known about this Volume at the time except it will contain the third volume of the exclusive mini-comic.

It is interesting to note that unlike all the previous volume releases, this volume will be released a little over a month after Volume 2 of Book 2 is released.  Last year for Book 1 the wait was 2-3 months between volumes.

Also in Avatar news, if you haven't heard yet, the show cleaned up in the two categories it was nominated in at the Annie Awards on Sunday night.  Giancarlo Volpe won for "Directing in an Animated Television Production" for the episode "The Drill" (213) and Yu Jae Myung won for "Character Animation in a Television Production" for "The Blind Bandit" (206).  This gives Avatar 3 awards from the Annies (last year Lauren MacMullan won for "Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production" for episode 116 "The Deserter").

You've probably all heard by now this very saddening news. Mako's passing is not only a great loss for Avatar and its fans, but also for the entire entertainment industry and all TV and movie fans across the globe.

The following is taken from TV.com's news story on Mako's death (which can be found here):

Mako enjoyed a long career on Broadway and in Hollywood. He was nominated for a best supporting actor Academy Award for playing a Chinese laborer in The Sand Pebbles, which was set during the US military presence in China in 1926 and looked at the uneasy relationship between villagers and foreigners.

His leading role as the reciter in Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures earned him a 1976 Tony Award nomination, the highest award for Broadway theater.

Over the years, Mako performed in numerous films and television shows, and he used his popularity to push for greater and more diverse roles for Asian-American actors in Hollywood. Recently, he provided voices for the cartoon Avatar, The Last Airbender.

In 1965 he helped start the Los Angeles-based East West Players, which established itself as among the top Asian-American theater troupes in the United States.

Born in Japan, Mako came to the United States following World War II to join his parents, who had been in the country at the war's outbreak and remained throughout its duration. He became a naturalized US citizen in 1956.

Mako is survived by his wife, two children, and grandchildren, Africa said.

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A tribute to Mr. Iwamatsu (using some of Iroh's best quotes) has been compiled by mellomuse, and is available through her profile. May he rest in peace.

(This is also posted in my blog)

I just got a message from my source for Avatar. He says, "I can tell you that that the creative team at Avatar, including the creators, directors, writers, and others, have been extremely disappointed and frustrated by these terrible leaks." The Avatar staff is understandably upset about this leakage. The fact it became so widespread (it was discussed on major forums, including Avatarspirit, Distant Horizon and TV.com) is even more disappointing.

Personally, I have tried to avoid this information as much as possible. Although, I have to say the return of some old characters, which I knew was happening but not when, was disappointing to find out. And the fact someone even created a "So-and-so Returns!" thread in the forum is disappointing. There ARE people who don't want to know spoilers, and had they not opened up the "Spoilers and Speculation" thread, they would not have known that.

Therefore, I am instituting a new spoiler policy in the forums. From now on, ANY thread containing information about future episodes (spoilers) which were not clearly marked AND have a non-descript title (like "Character A Returns!" is pretty obvious...but "Old Faces Return!" or something like that leaves the door wide open) will be deleted permanently. Also, any mention of these spoilers which were obtained from the Nick.com breech will be immediately deleted. Any future breech will hopefully be controlled by the staffs at the forums (with this experience behind us, hopefully fan forums will keep closer tabs on the spoilers in their forums). I feel this breech is a betrayal of the entire Avatar crew, and for that I am extremely sorry to Mike, Bryan, Aaron, John, Tim, Elizabeth, Giancarlo, Ethan, Lauren, and the entire Avatar crew who works so hard on this show. And thanks for all the hard work you have put up through now, and hopefully that will continue!

It seems we have some very exciting things to look forward to in the rest of the season, though: "There are some major surprises in store for the end of the season, and if they end up leaking ahead of time it will really really suck for everyone, including and especially Avatar fans. I hope that doesn't happen, but I guess we'll just have to wait and find out."

If you checked the TV.com main page this morning, you would have seen Avatar has finally topped Lost as the #1 most-visited-guide on the entire site!  After many trips in the past month to the top 10, and even the top 2, we have finally overcome the ABC drama and taken the #1 spot from them, for however long.

Now all this means is that on Saturday, July 15th, 2006, the Avatar guide on TV.com was visited and more pages clicked onto than any of the other thousands of guides on this site!  This is a testament to the great fans of this show, and also to the great users on TV.com who have helped me build the ultimate collection of Avatar episode information in the world!

Whether we stay on top, or we fall back again, we can all remember that on July 16, 2006, Avatar was the #1 TV show on TV.com, and now we even have a blog to prove it happened!

That's right! We get at least another 20 episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender. According to Nickelodeon Executive Vice President, Development and Original Programming Marjorie Cohn:

"In season three, Aang will confront his biggest enemy yet along with Katara and Sokka, and meet his destiny by facing the evil Fire Lord at last."

Some other interesting notes, which leaves the possibility for the show to go beyond 60 episodes open:

Co-Creator Bryan Konietzko said, "When we came up with the original concept for the show, we intended Aang's first journey to culminate by facing the Fire Lord in the third season." Other Co-Creator Mike DiMartino added, "We're excited that we will be able to complete that original vision for the series and allow Aang to meet his fate."

Nielsen Media Research reports that Avatar grew 23% in the demographic boys' 9-14. It is now the number one series for that demographic.

Future information on the show will be posted in this nifty little editors' blog TV.com has instituted. It is a very nice feature. Make sure to stop by this thread and thank the TV.com staff for this amazing new feature! Peace!