Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender Cast Talk M. Night Shyamalan Movie
The cast of Avatar: The Last Airbender's next live-action series talks about the movie that preceded them in a surprising move.
There has been a rather large elephant in the room when it comes to the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise. The upcoming live-action series hitting Netflix this month isn't the first time that Aang and company have been brought to the "real world". In a shocking twist, the cast of the upcoming television series took the opportunity to talk about M. Night Shyamalan's film, The Last Airbender.
M. Night Shyamalan's film arrived in 2010. While it was lampooned by critics and audiences, you might be shocked to learn that it didn't flat-out "bomb" at the box office. When all was said and done, this take on Aang and his fellow benders pulled in around $319 million USD worldwide. While it was initially slated to be a trilogy of films, the plans were cut following the negative reception.
To get things started, the young actress who plays Katara, Kiawentiio, talked about the film adaptation from Sixth Sense director, M. Night Shyamalan with The Hollywood Reporter, "I did watch it once and as a fan I think alongside all other fans I was disappointed. But I think it's a good way to see what we don't want to do. This cartoon has this amazing storyline, we tried to give it the live-action it deserves."
Avatar Vs. Avatar
The man who is taking on the role of Uncle Iroh for Netflix, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, also commented on the live-action film that failed to live up to its source material according to many fans, "I did watch it, you know? It's been dragged through the mud a lot, and I get it, as a fan I understand it. The casting is something that didn't sit well with me either and it was painful, in that sense. Not that the actors were bad, I'm not saying that. Nobody sets off to do a bad adaptation, nobody sets off to offend an entire fan base, but I think decisions were made that didn't quite sit well."
The Fire Lord Ozai, aka Daniel Dae Kim, didn't have as much fire for M. Night Shyamalan's take on the world of bending as many fans do, "I did see it. I have a lot of respect for M. Night Shyamalan. He assembled a great group of actors, many of whom are household names today. I think there's a time and a place for every kind of iteration of a show…This is the right Avatar for right now."