The Legend of Korra (season 3)

• Avatar Korra
• Mako
• Bolin
• Lin Beifong
• Tenzin
• Asami Sato
• Jinora
• Kai

• Bruce Davison as Fire Lord Zuko
• Logan Wells as Meelo
• Darcy Rose Byrnes as Ikki
• Richard Riehle as Bumi
• Lisa Edelstein as Kya
• John Michael Higgins as Varrick
• Stephanie Sheh as Zhu Li
• Henry Rollins as Zaheer
• Anne Heche as Suyin Beifong
• Grey DeLisle as Ming'hua
• Peter Giles as Ghazan
• Kristy Wu as P'Li
• Alyson Stoner as Opal Beifong

Book Three was the first season of The Legend of Korra to be created with a full in-house design and revision team, an expansion from the 25 to 30 people who worked for the series at Nickelodeon for seasons 1 and 2.[10]

The design for the armless waterbender Ming-Hua was based on Bryan Konietzko's friend Michi,[11] and Opal's hairstyle was based on that of Dolly Haas.[12] The location of Zaofu, Suyin Beifong's metal-domed city, was inspired by Lake Louise in Canada's Banff National Park,[12] and the exterior of Lake Laogai, the site of the Dai-Lin's headquarters, was modeled on Lake Tahoe.[13]

The sand shark from which Korra and Asami flee in episode 10 is based on the sarcastic fringehead, a small fish found in the Pacific.[14] For reasons of time, the designers re-used the design for Zuko and Iroh's apartment in Ba Sing Se from Avatar: The Last Airbender for the apartment of Mako and Bolin's family in episode 11.[15] Another concept taken from the previous series, although not depicted there, was the notion of "becoming wind" as a high-level airbending form, which was included in the series bible of Avatar.[16]

The idea of restraining the Avatar in X-shaped chains, as seen in the season finale, was originally conceived for the scene of Aang being captured by the Fire Nation in the first season of Avatar, but was then vetoed by the network. It was allowed this time, according to Konietzko, after he complained about seeing a shot of SpongeBob SquarePants, another Nickelodeon character, similarly restrained.[16]

In creating the animation, Studio Mir was assisted by its subsidiary Studio Reve for some episodes.[10]

Book Three introduced many new characters that would recur until the end of the series, including the extended Beifong family and Jinora's romantic interest, the orphaned thief Kai, named after writer Josh Hamilton's son.[17] Bryan Konietzko was worried about introducing him because of the growing roster of characters and his similarity to Aang.[11]

Also according to Konietzko, beginning with Book Three, the series became a more visible property and was able to retain more well-known actors.[11] Anne Heche auditioned and was cast for Suyin Beifong, Lin's estranged sister,[12] and Jon Heder auditioned for the minor role of the apathetic adolescent airbender Ryu.[11] Henry Rollins expressed interest for auditioning for the role of the season's main antagonist Zaheer, calling Konietzko and DiMartino from a tour to pose questions about the character.[18]

The season's title, Change, was inspired by a Taoist motto, "the only constant is change", reflecting the changes in Korra's world as a result of her opening the spirit portals in season 2 and the reemergence of airbending, as well as the change of Korra as a person.[10] The writers considered and rejected including a flashback to the Red Lotus's attempted kidnapping of Korra as a child, and also cut a scene of Asami and Lin sneaking into the airship in episode 4.[13]

The amount of exposition scenes in Book Three worried the writers because of the danger of boring audiences. According to Konietzko, most notes from Nickelodeon amounted to "more fighting, more action!".[12] The writers intended to set aside the love triangle among the main characters for Book Three and focus on Korra and Asami becoming friends.[10] In addition, they began to allude to the possibility of a mutual attraction between the two that would result in them becoming romantically linked in the final moments of the series.[19]