Last Airbender Film | Avatar: The Legend of Korra News, and Media Fan Blog

MTV with another scoop on The Last Airbender, this time sitting down with Dev Patel, recently cast as the Fire Nation’s banished Prince Zuko.

“It’s based on a Nickelodeon cartoon,” explained Patel, who replaced Jesse McCartney earlier this week as the character of Zuko, the 16-year-old exiled prince of Fire Nation who is eager to regain his honor. “There’s this character called Avatar [played by Noah Ringer] who can harness all these powers in a slightly different world, and they have different nations like the Firebenders — who can form fire and use it to their abilities — and there are Waterbenders and Earthbenders,” Patel explained.

“[Aang the Avatar] is the Airbender — he can harness air and all the other ones as well,” he added. “He’s a special being, and I’m part of that.”

“I play a character called Zuko who is the Prince of the Fire Nation, and it’s good because it’s a dark role. I’m not playing the hero, whereas in ‘Slumdog’ it was real character acting and performance-oriented. This is [as well], but it’s much more physical, with martial arts. I’m learning on the job, so this is a great new experience for me.”

When asked about the Jesse McCartney situation…

“I didn’t,” Patel said enthusiastically when asked whether he had “kicked out” the “Leavin’ ” singer. “I came on very late, so I didn’t hear about the Jesse McCartney thing. In all honesty, I swear.”