In a rather unexpected turn of events, Variety reports that Jesse McCartney has pulled out of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender due to scheduling conflicts with his musical career. What a twist!
“Jesse had tour dates that conflicted with a boot camp I always hold on my films, and where the actors here have to train for martial arts,” Shyamalan said.
Stepping into the role of the banished Prince Zuko is Taekwondo blackbelt and Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel! Shyamalan on choosing Patel to take over the role…
Patel was “already one of the guys I was interested in. Then I saw ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ and the kid just grew in my eyes,” he said.
On a related note, Jackson Rathbone has worked out his scheduling conflicts with the Twilight sequel also filming later this year, and will be playing Sokka.
Tags: Dev Patel, Jackson Rathbone, Jesse McCartney, m. night, shyamalan, Twilight, whitewashing, Zuko
April 16, 2009 at 5:26 am |
i know u guys dont want to be racist nd all so u have used someone else other than caucasian to play a few characters. but come on this is what we call “swinging the pendulum of tolerance to the other side with the same if not more extremity”. this movie lloks like it is starting to now be dominant of arabic/ middle eastern-LOOKING people ( even though this guy is indian and i know that indians ARE asians.) This BOYish character is so scrawny and i know he could grow throughout the series like harry potter did but think about how weird he would look with amber eyes, a near bald head. plus he doesn’t evenn look like he has the potential to be a fire-driven, always-angry charcter. does he know how to speak fluent, unbroken english? plus, this is more evidence of m night shyalaman recruiting his own family in the movie just to make a quick dollar and hopefully get citizenship in the states. no offense!
July 17, 2009 at 2:14 am |
@ Bob
Are you fucking stupid . Seriously , this kid speaks perfect English . You should do some research on people before you try to start a flame war . Even if there was a dominance of Asians , which it isnt , who gives a rat’s tail . Avatar revolves around Asian mythology , and as long as its a good movie who cares how many “white” people are in the movie .
July 29, 2009 at 3:50 pm
That’s exactly what I’m saying. If people were real fans of avatar, they would care less about what damn color the actors skin is, and care more about the fact that a nickelodeon cartoon was actually given a chance in the Hollywood film industry. Seriously, that’s the main thing here, considering it’s the first time Nick’s had a show that successful, and people don’t seem to give a flying shit about it because they’re so wrapped up on flinging as many race cards as they can on white people.
I feel like the only people here who aren’t being racist are the whites. To all the rest of you, reread your comments and you’ll see exactly what the hell I’m talking about.
August 13, 2009 at 12:31 am |
Of cource he speaks english in fact he speak British English the most English of all the English. He’s a British actor of Indian descent
April 16, 2009 at 7:02 am |
what is going onnnnn man. this is what you call swinging the pendulum of tolerance way extremely to the other side. i dont think theres a predominance of white actors/actresses anymore, its more like indian looking/middle eastern looking decent. i know that this guy is indian, and that indians are asians, that just proves m night shyalaman is recruiting his fellow countrymen to take over the movie.
plus the BOY is so scrawny . i know he could grow up throughoput the movie like harry potter, but come on. he doesnt even look like he has the potential to have that fired-up, always-angry attitude of zuko. he won’t have the same ‘teasing chemistry’ that he will need in his interactions with katara, as katara will probably tower over him, or at least out-muscle him.
and also, zuko is a character that must be white. not any of the ones that m night shyalaman has considered though. pure asians are a no no, (simply because they remind me of tokyo drift, and none of those asians were good at acting especially the first one who lost to the white main character who then chucked a tantrum in his car).
April 22, 2009 at 7:03 am |
I can tell that this is not the first time you mention this topic. Why have you chosen it again?
May 3, 2009 at 1:40 pm |
sorry i thought my first one didnt get through.
May 5, 2009 at 12:57 am |
dude, dev has the potentials. i believe he can portray prince zuko well.
and plus, he can speak english fluently cause he’s british (with hindu parents.)
and come on asian animes should be played by asian people to make it look real and compelling. come to think of dragon ball the movie?i can’t even feel the goku spirit in him. tokyo drift’s not an anime-based movie so you can take that as an exemption.
July 29, 2009 at 3:53 pm |
Um. I agree with what you said about Dev having potential, but I disagree with your statement about Asian Anime’s needing to be played by Asian people.
Avatar is NOT an Asian Anime. It is an American Cartoon.
Therefore, in my eyes, Americans can do whatever the hell they want with it and cast whoever the hell they want.
August 5, 2009 at 10:22 pm
I agree, this is obviously an American animation..
i have nothing against dev patel because i don’t know him in the first place, I just wished they get an actor that will resemble Zuko much better. I believe it is fun that we can pin point who’s who in the movie because i have been
watching the tv series over and over and it feels like I know the character of Zuko very much and I can’t imagine feeling the same with just the way dev looks…
September 19, 2009 at 3:47 pm
OMG!
How dum can Americans be.
Idiots!
AVATAR is NOT an AMERICAN/WHITE name!!!
It is Sanskrit/Hindi, part of the Asian Indian Hindu belief of re-incarnation!!!
An Avatar signifies the descent of Divinity into flesh. One who attains union with Spirit and then returns to earth to help mankind is called an ‘Avatar’.
Dev Patel is Indian Hindu, born in Britain.
He is PERFECT for the role.
The movie concept is part of his belief system, Hinduism!
Honestly, people can be so f*ckin stupid!
May 23, 2009 at 11:54 am |
louie’s right..even i, had the expectation of the dragonball movie as a cool one..and to my surprise..it was A RUBBISH!..no offense..but the movie really sucks!..i hope the last airbender wont do the same stupid unprofessional adaptation to real life like what did the dragonball movie did..
June 30, 2009 at 9:56 am |
Dev Patel spent most of his life in the UK.
He speaks unbroken english and doesn’t even have a bad Indian accent.
So quit being so damn ignorant and stop wasting your energy posting s**t like that!
Also, I do agree that he is in no position with his scrawny physique and clumsy moves to be good enough to play the hotman, Zuko’s role.
I mean he is a good actor but with his appearance, he just won’t be able to pull it off.
Lastly,I still wish there was a different cast for Aang’s character too.
That kid looks too small. And well, he should have asian eyes.=/
And that tattoo on his forhead doesn’t even look like the one in the anime series!
March 3, 2010 at 9:50 pm |
Can You see the tattoo and how it incorporates the spiral air
symbol in it?.. it be light on blue the tattoos when Aang State Avatar.
March 3, 2010 at 9:56 pm |
In the scene with the bows coming behind the statues guess what those statues look like to me. THE PREVIOUS AVATAR STATUES at the temples!!!!!!!!!!!
December 12, 2009 at 4:08 am |
I could care less about skin color but the kid who plays aang looks a little younger than I expected, but that’s okay he’s twelve and aang was 112 which is close enough I guess, as long as he rocks that part cuz I freak’n luv Aang. Patel should do good though, he was pretty awesome on slumdog millionaire.
December 12, 2009 at 7:01 am |
dev patel is my favorite actor
March 3, 2010 at 9:22 pm |
I not crazy about Dev Patel but I know that Zuko is a good choice, Dev’s a martial artist pro, and he’s an AWSOME actor. He from “Slumdog Millionaries” and it was a good movie. I hope he doesn’t screw it up. lol i not sure about him… i don’t know but i was wondering what is about parts.. Cuz i cant wait to see it and i kinda exciting but oh yeah! ^.^
March 3, 2010 at 9:36 pm |
Dev patel… I love him
If people say he’s overacting, let’s just say he’s like in the show : HE MUST FIND THE AVATAR and he’s I mean it’s hard to explain, he’s just ZUKOKIND 
The evolution of this character is different than in the show also (no spoil, PM me).
July 1, 2010 at 1:03 am |
I fully agree that M Night Shyalaman is using this movie to push Bollywood into Hollywood or rather get more Indians on the big screen. Which is wrong and unprofessional considering Avatar despite having common hindu themes is base more on Asian Chinese Culture. The show had Kanji Characters in it to represent the elements. Prince Zuko was Light Skinned (resemble the Japanese) and had that Asian-American boy voice along with clear asian eyes (We all can admit it)
“Avatar is set in an Asian-influenced world of Chinese martial arts and elemental manipulation. The show drew on elements from traditional Asian culture, while blending the styles of anime and US domestic cartoons.” Mark Lasswell (2005-08-25). “Kung Fu Fightin’ Anime Stars, Bo”. New York Times. Retrieved 2006-12-02.
If anything Sokka and Katara should be casted as Indian because they were actually brown skin in the cartoon but I understand why Nick would push to have their own talent to fill those two main roles.
Just so you don’t think im making too much out of this then consider if Antoine Fuqua (A Producer of African descent behind movie Brooklyn Finest) got the green light to direct and he suddenly decided black people was a better choice for the fire Nation. I don’t have to tell you what the internet community reaction would be. M Night Shyalaman decision is shameless although Im sure the movie will be a success anyway. He should of just White washed the cast (insert the actors/actress nick wanted to promote) then infuse it with young Asian talent, lord knows this movie would of been a great one to showcase some fresh Asian-American acting blood but no Shyalaman would rather steal their chance so some of his people can work.
July 6, 2010 at 5:53 am |
i don’t give a shit about race. its about portraying the characters as accurately as possible. you just cannot replace zuko and his uncle and the entire fire nation with Indians who have zero relation with the character. it would be like casting Chris Tucker as Columbus. some may say this is racist and i say, look up the definition of racist because you obviously have no idea what it means. furthermore the actors chosen to portray the fire nation regardless of ethnic back round;although very important, in no way WHAT SO EVER gave any feeling or similarities to parallel the attitudes charisma or look of the original characters in the BOOK or in the series.
i walked out of this movie half through and got my monies back. worst movie by this director EVER.
there WILL NOT be anymore movies… it is already been destroyed. the actors never had a chance to portray these characters what was he thinking?
as for the pronunciation of the names. how can he say “…he just couldn’t…” go on with incorrect pronunciation when his casting was so far off base with this character casting… simply horrible.
December 29, 2010 at 6:27 pm |
i thought the movie was good but i really didnt like how they pronounced names differently then in the airbender series, like aang, sokka, iroh, and any other ones i may be forgetting but other then that i thought it was a good start, although i hope the next one grow a bit more