Avatar Casting
Aang tries to escape Shyamalan’s casting choices.
Entertainment Weekly reports that M. Night Shyamalan has cast the major roles for The Last Airbender, his big screen version of the Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender (Avatar was dropped from the film’s title to avoid confusion with James Cameron’s long-aborning Avatar, which will be seen in theaters sometims in the 21st century). Here’s the news from EW:
After an open casting call in Texas, Shyamalan discovered karate star Noah Ringer and offered him the part of Airbender’s 12-year old hero, Aang, an Avatar with superpowers who must stop the Fire Nation from destroying the world. Twilight’s Jackson Rathbone has been asked to play Aang’s pal Sokka, while Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls) will star as his sister Katara. Genial singer Jesse McCartney, meanwhile, is negotiating to play against type in the role of the Fire Nation’s evil prince Zuko.
Good heavens! Genial singers gone bad! Or evil, I should say.
I don’t know enough about any of these kids to really comment on their abilities, and I don’t watch Avatar, so I’m not an expert on that front. However, I do have a friend who is an Avatar fan and she said the Avatar community is just horrified. I asked who they thought should have been cast and she said, “someone not white would have been a start.”
Point taken–it looks pretty bad right now, though to be fair, I couldn’t find a picture of Noah Ringer, so we don’t know what he looks like.
Well, looking on the bright side, I don’t think people had high hopes for this one anyway. Right?
Update: By the way, if you’re interested, here’s one person’s proposal for protesting the casting:
10 Comments
December 10th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
“Someone not white” would have been the best idea.
I know I was expecting a promotional poster with a rainbow of skintones; then I looked up the current choices and realized…that poster is clearly not gonna happen.
It’s the Dragonball casting allll over.
December 10th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
In retrospect, maybe the super-white cast IS the twist.
December 11th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Wonder I do wonder, Was it too dificult to look between non pale looking people? O.o
December 13th, 2008 at 5:52 am
This is a disgusting travesty that spits in the eye of the original material. What the hell were they thinking with this?
Wow.
Just, wow.
December 16th, 2008 at 5:27 am
Hey! Just wanted to thank you for drawing attention to this issue, and for so kindly spreading the word about our efforts to protest it. It’s been a rough week, so far, and blog posts like this one really brighten my day!
Also, as you said you aren’t familiar with the show — it’s late Monday night, now, and by tomorrow afternoon we’ll have posted our “Screencap Essay” for folks like you who might be curious. The show really does speak for itself.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:32 am
[…] Avatar Casting - Kirsten Anderson (@ Snakerati) […]
January 28th, 2009 at 8:40 am
WTH are they thinking??? Is that Shyamalan a blind colour guy or what ? They’re gonna ruin that film for sure..sigh..
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:51 am
[…] Avatar Casting - Kirsten Anderson @ Snakerati [Dec. 10, 2008] […]
May 22nd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Well, I would have to say their skin tones are all a little messed up. I mean Aang has white skin, but who they are casting does not. And Katara and Sokka have darker skin, yet the kids they casted are white. lol. But all that really matters in the end is if they can stay true to the show, and pull off some amazing fight scenes! If that is the case I think i can look past the skin color.
December 14th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
i hate their blinded choice for color too
but at least mccartney’s out and booted off, farrrrrrrr awayy..
the cast aint suppose to be caucasians, this is guaranteed to tick off the avatar comm. but if they can pull this mvie off, it’ll at least let the fans see past the color disaster.
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