Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Kiawentiio says M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 movie was a “good way to see what we don’t want to do.”
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter at the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, Kiawentiio, who plays Katara in the live-action show, shared some thoughts about Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender movie from 2010.
“I did watch it once and, as a fan, I think alongside all other fans I was disappointed,” she said. “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.”
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Daniel Dae Kim on M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, who plays Uncle Iroh in the series, said of Shyamalan’s movie, “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. Now knowing more and being in the age that we’re at right now in terms of representation, diversity and inclusivity, we were able to inhabit the world properly in that sense,”
Fire Lord Ozai actor Daniel Dae Kim added, “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 Avatarfor right now.”
Coming from showrunner Albert Kim and based on the animated Nickelodeon series of the same name, Avatar: The Last Airbender premieres on Netflix on February 22, 2024.
