Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender – Cast Images

This is appalling.

Aang and Zuko should be light-skinned East Asians. Katara and Sokka should be darker-skinned Inuit/Native Americans.

Why would they make this movie if they were just going to whitewash all of the heroes?

Oh please, even people from the original show are ‘untoward’ to this film. Mike & Bryan had nothing to do with this film and hopefully this sham of a movie fails. I would rather have a sequel to the original show or an animated film than this travesty. MNight and his ego and twists can go take it somewhere else.

@ Jimmy. Do research before you make your statements. Mike and Bryan are executive producers of the film. You don’t believe me, check out the credits on the teaser trailer. Just sayin…

Whee, morons who can get on a pedestal and say their colourblind, all the while ignoring the blatant historically documented discrimination of Asian Americans in cinema. Cultural appropriatino is awesome amirite? But hey, when discrimination is against Asians, it really isn’t discrimination. They should just suck it up like they always do.

First off idiots, although Mike & Bryan are exec producers, they didn’t have anything to do with the movie’s plot/casting/etc other than very early consulting. This info is according to Sifu Kisu, the fighting consultant and instructor from the show.

LOL fail. True fan =/ waste good money on a movie posing as Avatar.

I can’t wait to see the movie, I’m a huge Avatar fan but they have made a mistake with the casting. I am a person who is Asian, white, hispanic, and Indian and I’m not bias to any one race, yet I was suprised that the main cast was majority white.I think its something they didn’t intend to do but just happened. Its something that should have been more carefully looked into. Not trying to piss anyone off but if this was a african american cartoon or even white cartoon this wouldn’t have happened so easy, so let’s be real. I can understand how some Asains might feel, there are a lot of Asain or Asain Americans who could have been in the movie as a main cast members. It’s not like these kids are big stars or anything. It’s just funny how the Zuko characther is Indian like the director, seems he got to fit one of he own in. I guess it’s the fact that Bollywood is the second largest film industry out there, first going to Japan and the US being the third. I’ve seen some of the cast photos, Zuko is standing front of an all Asain military in the background. I guess its OK for the Asians to be in the back just not in the front. I am in filmand have been at casting calls and production meetings so I know how it works. Yes Brian and Mike are invovled but most likely they rented thier copy rights or sold alot of the main story ideal to the studio and the studio can do whatever they want with the film.It like Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation, James Camerons creations and he rented his copyrights to the studio. He had no creatvie control or say when the last two movies where made and you can really tell. Plus Brian and Mike are animators not film people, they are going to do whatever they studio advises them to do. If the studio thinks white kids are going to make them money then thats what they’ll use, plus it’s to late to make any changes to the movie. Don’t be suprised after all of the complaints that the next Avatar movie has a multi race cast. It’s not like there are a whole lot of Asain American shows on TV these days or Hispanic for that matter. I do know there is a lot of Asain and hispanic discrimation in Hollywood you guys can disagree but if you can tell me a hit show starring all Asains or Hispanics just let me know. There was George Lopez but he got canceled, (I wonder why?) So regradless even if you don’t agree with me I can understand why a lot of people are mad. Avatar was based on the Asain culture and it’s people.If we are going to debate diversity then why isn’t Katara or Soka a Hispanic or African American actor. If they where then I would agree that the cast was a diverse and so on. It is a slap in the face to Asains who don’t complain enough when socially discriminated against. How would African Americans feel if the Boondocks cartoon was cast with all white actors or the Family Guy cartoon cast with only Asains. Asian are a proud people with rich and and strong cultural heritage that they are proud of. In the past there has been as much repression of thier culture as any other minorities in America. Being the butt of the joke all the time in a movies is not always appealing. Jakie Chan in Rush Hour or Harold and Kumar. Funny movies and I liked them but the stories always seem to poke fun at Asains in it. It’s not like we’ve seen a lot of movies with any real action drama like the Avatar offers in the past couple of years. To not acknowledge the real people who founded these religous and martial arts practices is terrible. Everyone always fights about the black and white thing but everyone inbetween doesn’t seem to matter, many even defending the discrimation against a whole race in this movie. I will go and see the Avater becuse I am in film and I understand that it is all about business. Its the world we live in, money make the world go around.I doubt this issue will hurt the movie in the box office becuase most people don’t care about who the cast is only that it is the Avatar on the big screen. But I do agree that at least one main cast member should have been Asain. So when people get mad don’t get your hair all ruffled because if it wasn’t for people like that aknowledging discrimination no matter how small nothing or no one would ever change.

wow that made no sense haha

WHATS WITH EVERYONE SAYING AANG IS WHITE? YEAH HES LIGHT SKINNED IN THE CARTOON,BUT BY NO MEANS IS HE WHITE LOOK AT THE NAME AANG THATS ASIAN , HIS NAME AINT BILLY OR TOMMY,LOOK AT THE WORLD THEY LIVE IN, IT DONT LOOK LIKE ANCIENT EUROPE, IM CHINESE FROM CHINA AND MY SKIN IS BY NO MEANS DARK IM JUST AS WHITE AS THE WHITEST WHITE PERSON,JUST BECAUSE YOUR NOT A WHITE PERSON DOESNT MEAN YOUR SKIN HAS TO BE DARK AS DIRT ,THIS MOVIE WAS HORRIBLY MISS CAST AND EVEN MY KIDS SAID DADDY ISNT AANG ASIAN WHY DID THEY MAKE HIM WHITE ?LOL

those that think asian is mongolian-chinese race only is wrong. those that think that the show is not based on hindu culture is wrong. those that think dark skin mongolian-chinese is not indian is wrong.
asian is many countries not the mongolian-chinese race exclusive. a lot of asian countries are based on the indian culture and hindu is the oldest culture in asia. any mongolian-chinese dark skin person is a mix blood of the indian people.
Shyamalan is asian and as the oldest civilize culture in asia india he knows what the show means and should look like.

Jimmy is a [whee] moron. “IF IT’S BASED ON SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT EXACTLY THE SAME WAY.” Nice to know that you’re not a fan of: The Shawshank Redemption, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Godfather Trilogy, The Green Mile, The Dark Knight, Fight Club, Road to Perdition, Requiem for a Dream, No Country For Old Men. All of these are films based on source material you witless infant. I’ve read every book/comic book they’re based on and can tell you with absolute certainty all the things that were changed. Asian kid turning into white kid NOW THEY’RE JUST GONE AND RUINED THE STORY. You’re the same kid that probably crapped on Transformers because Optimus Prime had a mouth instead of a mouth PLATE. You’re petty, pithy and ridiculous.

I am an Air Bender fan, Asian (Chinese) and I am appalled by the casting. I’ll rent the movie, but I am not going to watch it at the theaters. This movie screams lack of diversity and representation of the Asian community. I don’t care how much special effects they put in this movie, unless you can make them more asian and less white, then too bad. Shame on you for messing with a perfect Cartoon series and turning into crap. I curse this film.

I dont have much of a problem with their race.
I like the first poster pic up there with the different bending, it looks awesome.
The only true complaint i have is that aang and katara LOOK too young, i know that aang and katara ARE young, but im just saying that age does not transmit well from cartoon to live action. ;\
But im still going to see it duh 😀

To Don’t Watch This Movie:
The Asian Community IS represented. Much of the ideas are drawn straight from different Asian cultures–names, customs, costumes, architecture, bending techniques. If the entire cast was Asian as well, the “white people” would be entirely left out…of an American film…Which doesn’t make much sense.

Besides, the cartoon characters are not strictly Asian anyway. They have American voices and American mannerisms. Although they are drawn by Koreans, they don’t look particularly Asian.

Why the racism? This movie will be too white for you? That’s hateful.

P.S. Relax fans. Zuko is scarred and Aang has the arrow. They’re less noticeable because of realistic interpretation and cinematic license.

@AANG NO NO NO THE CHINESE ARE THE OLDEST LIVING CIVILIZATION DO SOME RESEARCH ,ITS CLEAR THAT AANG IN THE CARTOON IS OK HOWZ THAT WE ALL KNOW THEY MISCAST THIS MOVIE ITS A REAL SHAME THAT MY FAMILY AND I MUST PASS ON THIS MOVIE AND JUST BECAUSE SHAMA-LAMA-DING-DONG IS INDIAN FROM (ASIA) DONT MEAN JACK BECAUSE HE GOT THE WHOLE FRICKIN CAST WRONG!!!!

I always hear people defend the cast of this film by saying they cast based on talent, not skin color, but I do not believe this is true. The casting calls for the four leads suggested a preference for Caucasian actors, even though the characters aren’t Caucasian, and to little surprise, they initially selected four white actors for the four leads. Remember, Jesse McCartney was their first choice to play Zuko, not Dev Patel, so if you truly believe they made their choices based on talent alone then you must also think Jesse is a better actor than Dev.

To those of you applauding this film for overlooking skin color, why doesn’t this happen for any of the Anglo or European inspired fantasy films like Lord of the Rings? Do you think any Chinese actors were auditioned for Gandalf and Aragorn? Were any Filipino or Korean actors considered to play the kids in the Harry Potter movies? There’s a double standard here: European-inspired fantasy films get overwhelming Caucasian casts, but the rare American Asian-inspired fantasy gets re-imagined under the fake excuse of increasing diversity, and once again they cast Caucasians as the lead heroes. Airbender’s not proof of a post-racial Hollywood. Rather it’s evidence that some races are still favored over others for the best roles.

Also, I can’t wait for the usual shaymalan twist ending where we find out that apa, the flying bison, was infact, firelord ozai in disguise THE WHOLE TIME.

Apa unzips his skin, ozai walks out,and says “Fools! You actually paid to see this Movie!Hahahahahahahahaahhaah!!!!”

What the fucking bullshit????? One, Katara looks nothing like that! It looks like some kid going out trick or treating!!! Second, you can barely see Zuko’s scar!! And last, is that fourth guy supposed to be SOKKA!!!?? He looks nothing like him, not one bit!!! However, this is M. Night Shyamalan’s ADAPTATION of Avatar: The Last Airbender, so as long as the main story and character development doesn’t change, I’m all for it!

Whether or not the cast matches those of the animated series should be of less concern to the ‘hardcore’ animated fans.
The simple fact is they should put the word LIVE ACTION somewhere in the title to show that this is not the original storyline or possibly not related to it in any way, because as everyone should know, any and all animated shows that have been made into live action is a complete failure to represent its source material. (DBZ:EVOLUTION? / SF:LEGEND OF CHUNG LI?… )

Basically if you havent seen the series you’re most likely to enjoy it, if you have though, at least you can watch over the series to forget about it(i suggest some liquor also, yes its going to be that bad and if im wrong…well lets just hope i am)

I find it funny how much flack this movie has gotten because of the cast, stating that it’s being biased by not casting Asians, etc. First off, this isn’t an anime adaptation. Avatar was made in America, and while it was heavily influenced by several sources, anime included, I’m just not seeing the big deal. Aang always looked like a little white kid in the cartoon. He talked like a little white kid. He looked like a monk in the same way that Cain from Kung-Fu did. :-p His friends from the water tribe always looked Inuit/Native American. Everyone else looked a mixture of white or Asian in the show with the voice actors being either at any given time. It’s not like the cartoon was this diverse menagerie of color or anything, and it certainly didn’t look like it was intended to be all Asian either. Chill the freak out. Then again, this is the internet and it just wouldn’t be any fun if there wasn’t something to overdramatize or complain about. There’s plenty of other factors to worry about for this movie other than how light-skinned the cast is.

okay, i’ve been thinking about this, and although i a not IN LOVE with the choice of cast, im sure there must be a reason behind it, i love avatar, and i love the characters, but it would be no use if the actors looked like them, but couldn’t act in a way that should each character in the correct light, so i think maybe they are really good actors and maybe this is why they were chosen rather than what they look like.

I’d love for someone to explain to me how casting the three leads with Caucasian actors is somehow “diverse.” This is a whitewash, plain and simple. And we’re going to have another movie with the white heroes saving the poor ethnic extras from dark-skinned villains.

No thank you.

I’m having trouble understanding all the ire being directed at the movie over the racial makeup of the cast. What confuses me the most is that so many people seem to be missing one rather large fact: This movie is not set in our world. These characters do not live on Earth. Not a fictional version of Earth that resembles our own. There are no six-legged flying bison, or gliding lemurs, or panther moose (mooses, meese…). People with the level of technology shown in the cartoon would not be able to travel our world so extensively within the short period of time in which the story takes place. We’re not dealing with OUR reality here, folks. That being said, maybe some of you need to consider that their world also does not have “races” in the same way as our own. I must confess to being oblivious about “race” within the cartoon as we understand it in the real world. It never for a moment occurred to me that Katara and Sokka could be Inuit. Aang appeared to me Caucasian to me. Yeah, I thought that Zuko might be Asian, but it never was explicitly stated in any way during the show. I did recognize that there was a heavy multi-culture-Asian influence on the show’s design, but that never really translated to the races of the characters for me. In those terms, I really don’t see much issue with casting Asian vs European vs Native American actors in the roles AS LONG AS THEY CAN ACT. Truth be told, I wouldn’t have a problem with any other race being included with the film, but people would have to be willing to accept what would be a rather large departure from the canon of the show.

Bottom line is: it’s a fantasy story set in a world other than our own and putting limitations upon it that are a part of our world (and its conflicts) doesn’t make much sense to me.

Sorry – forgot one other factoid: Just pulled up pics of all the characters to review and I noticed that the three main heroes of the story all are depicted with blue eyes. (Not sure if the pics from Wikipedia reflect how they are rendered in the actual cartoon, though.) How many Asians or Inuits out there have blue eyes? Any, besides those of mixed heritage? This just seems to further emphasize my point that their world isn’t governed by the limitations and labels of our own. Good for them!

No soporto la escogencia de personajes, me parece que agrede a la serie, de ahí que muchos fans se muestren contrariados… lo que más me sorprende es que los productores y escritores de la serie original permitan este cambio tan abrupto.

But adam, and to an extent, dave. As has been pointed out, this sort of thing NEVER happens to a series that takes place in a european setting. A cast of white characters from a book, REMAIN a cast of white characters when they are translated to film, as evidenced by…just about everyone book to movie adaptation ever, but the most recent one’s being harry potter and lord of the rings. You didn’t see any forced “diversity” bullshit in those films, the characters remained similar/very close to what their ethnicities were in the books.

Avatar is OBVIOUSLY asian themed, most of the characters are obviously supposed to be asian, and if not, there are certainly more asian looking characters than white. As I said, I’m pretty sure aang was the only “white” looking character on the show, so his casting doesn’t bother me so much as katara and sokka.

The Avatar film makers are just using “diversity” as an excuse to white wash the three main heroes. This shit NEVER happens to stories that have white main heroes.

Since the next harry potter movie hasn’t started filming yet, I fully expect the filmakers to learn from the last airbenders “example” and cast harry as black, ron as mexican, and hermoine as a jew. That’d be perfectly acceptable to everyone right?

Also, the voice actor arguement holds ZERO weight. I see people posing”well they were voiced by white people, so they should be played by them and/or you shouldn’t have any problem with it”. By that logic, a live action simpsons movie would have to star a middle aged woman as bart, and a live action samurai jack movie would have to cast a black guy as jack, and the live action transformers movies would need giant middle aged men acting out the battles in lieu of cgi robots.

Seriously, wake up people.

I think this casting is effing horrible….its laughable for people to try and defend by saying, the cartoon is not based on our world or aang looked white, and katara and her bro had blue eyes. Come one people we are all old enough to know when one race is obviously preferred over another. And ive heard the argument before, LOTR and Harry potter are based in fantasy worlds and all those main characters stayed white How do you explain that?

All I have to say is they better be kick ass actors and devote themselves to the part or this is going to be the biggest disappointment ever,he already fucked up the casting I’m hoping he did it because they are worth it.

I mean the way i look at it Zuko is going to be good,and Sokka is questionable but I’m hopeful he is a good actor also.But good god casting fresh faces in a already questionable movie with a director who hasn’t ever really had a anything spectacular.

the chips are down,it could bomb.

“drawn ethnically ambiguous” is what i wrote. meaning their appearance. there is no question about the asian influence on the series. which i already stated. if u didnt catch that the first time around. bottom line is the cast is set and the movie is moving forward. continue bitching if it makes you all feel important but it wont make a bit of difference. go ahead and say youll boycott the film but if youre a fan you will watch it.

Thanks Seradane. I’m not seeing it either. If they couldn’t even get the kids’ ethnicities straight, the rest of the film’s probably going to be terrible too.

can you really say its gonna be a horrible adaptation based on the cast? i admit there isnt a long list of successful adaptations but save your judgements for after it comes out.

the actor who plays zuko is asian.

This is horrible.
The cast sucks!
Aang is WAYYY to young for Katara.
He’s like 12, while she is 14? I know thats how it is in the tv show but an older actor wouldn’t hurt, right? Nicola is alright, she might be able to pull of the part, but Zoko is HORRIBLE!! Were is the scar!!!! He wouldn’t be able to do it. Jackson Rathbone might be able to pull of his character too.
I’m sad that the cast is so bad. I was looking forward to the movie. Not anymore.
🙁

I think that this movie wil be good. Fingers crossed!!!!!!

Oh and Lola my fingers crossed too.

Zach, in response to your ‘actors don’t need to be asian’ comments, I’m assuming you’d be equally as happy with asian characters, playing, for example, the hobbits, or Gandalf, in LotRings?

And the Character of I am legend was played by Will Smith when the original character was White… Also the Characters in Lord of the Rings are described as what they are – Which is White. The culture in Avatar is Asian correct, but it was written by Americans and the characters never had their races classified. Also notice how Katara has blue eyes – Something that Inuits do not have. Get over it, I think the characters are devoted to their roles and will succeed with it. Please realize that this isn’t earth.

my continued thoughts on the matter are that they are close enough to the animated version to care to much about race. Yea maybe zuko could have been asian but all this crap about LOTR and Harry potter, i dont believe that they can be compared, as both were written in England by english authors. wait awhile then go watch it and if it is shit house because of the cast i’ll concede defeat. O and the comment about the black kid playing aang is stupid. That would be so far from the animated aang its almost another topic completely. At least these actors somewhat resemble the animated versions. Chur.

why the fuck does it matter if aang is white or asian, what truly matters rii now is that , ZUKO IS NOT FUCKIN BROWN, WTF!?!?

slanted eye folks are white too.

Surely there were some talented actors out there who at least resemble the characters in the original show? Surely? The ‘racist’ slant on the casting has been done to death, but I am just disappointed that none of the main cast look even remotely like the original characters. Dev Patel was good in Slum Dog, but no way is he Zuko. At least there is always the cartoon series!

Eye colour is easily changed by contact lenses.

Anyways, the characters should at least slightly resemble the original version. Casting Sokka and Katara as inuit actors or something similar would have been a logical choice, aang is more open for interpretation, zuko is portrayed as asian and the actor cast should have been taller and appeared more physically built and intimidating (Dev seems too friendly and is by no means intimidating), iroh is quite obviously japanese (the cartoon character’s mannerisms and skills -such as the art of tea making- suggest this).

I was extremely dissappointed when I learnt of the cast. They pretty much ruined an awesome story-line and I doubt they will ever remake it after this disaster of a movie. Hopefully with this crap out of the way Mike and Bryan can (hopefully) continue the cartoon storyline.

my sis and i feel that a major mistake is being made here. we aren’t even going to say anything about the whole asian/non-casting issue, just the actors seem like bad choices. first off, the actress playing katara just does not seem like a good choice, judging from past performances. further more, the character Aang seems way too depressing… i hope the movie will make him a much more energetic, fun loving character. and where is our favorite character, the little fuzz ball Momo???

I’m a huge Avatar fan, but to be honest I just don’t think this film’s going to be well received. They’re doing three movies on book one to start, second the casting isn’t that good, and third the target demographic is just too small. If this movie has anything going for it it’ll be the special effects. As much as I hate to say it, I might not even watch it. You see, I love the show and I don’t want this movie to ruin it for me, but if you still want to see it more power to ya.

It’s incredibly sad to me that there are people who A) say they are fine with the casting and B) think that people are overreacting to the issue of race in casting, because what it tells me is that there are a lot of subtle racism issues that people either can’t or won’t confront–it’s not all about blatant hate crimes and stuff like that. The idea that the casting is justified by trying to make the movie more appealing to Americans suggests that Americans would not go see the movie if the cast were predominantly Asian. I don’t know how any other American who is NOT racist, regardless of ethnicity, isn’t offended by that suggestion.

The argument that the characters’ ethnicity was left open to interpretation as a way to justify the casting is equally tragic, because that tells me that people rely heavily on stereotypes to define people ethnically. The characters in the show are drawn from various Asian cultures, as is the world itself. That many of the voice actors were not Asian and did not speak with thick, stereotypical Asian accents does not change that fact, in the same way that the actors in Marie Antoinette speaking English did not mean they weren’t supposed to be French characters in France. The mostly American accents in the show, that’s the part that appeals to American audiences. As well, the voice actor/accent argument seems to mean that all Asians speak English with some type of accent, when in point of fact, this is not true, and is a form of racism itself.

That race doesn’t matter as long as they can act the part is also a depressing argument, for reasons stated by others using LoTR and Harry Potter as examples, because that’s just people refusing to see the issue. Yes, the people are described in the books (in books, they usually are). This isn’t much different than characters being animated or drawn in a comic-they are visually described right before your eyes. Superman was no more Hispanic than the kids in Avatar are Caucasian. So LoTR, HP, and Superman were all created by white people. That does not mean that people of other ethnicities cannot write characters that are white, nor that white people cannot create an entire world that is essentially Asian. Fantasy Asian, but Asian nonetheless. People shouldn’t assume that a show created by white Americans, despite every visual cue in the animation, would really only want to made a show about other white Americans.

Finally, it makes me almost furious that anyone would dare say that the casting was to add diversity to represent Americans watching the movie. Since when did representational diversity become important in adaptations in America? Let’s just stick with cartoon shows made into live action movies: Transformers (human characters only)? Scooby Doo? Inspector Gadget? The Flintstones? George of the Jungle? Notice how well all of these movies did… not. People using this argument may be thinking “But the characters in those shows were white…” It’s infuriating, because it seems that color/ethnicity is only important if the characters aren’t already white. If they are, however, then it must be fine. I can’t imagine how anyone can look a the Book 3 DVD covers and convince themselves that the characters, including Aang, aren’t Asian. For those who haven’t already, go to http://www.racebending.com to see what a Caucasian Aang would really look like, and to get a clearer perspective.

Shyamalan probably is a studio pawn. Who knows; there truly are a lot of politics going on behind the scenes that we will never know. But what it all amounts to is that the media is still pushing, however subtly, the idea that Americans prefer white people, that the ideal hero image to represent to kids (because that’s the demographic, make no mistake) is that of classical Caucasian Americans. Is does make me curious that Shyamalan is behind this since, while he was raised in America, Indian culture in general has a very pronounced, somewhat well known preference for light skin. In the end, it’s too bad that the creators didn’t retain more control over the film, but what’s more sad is that it looks like racism, even the kind that some here don’t seem to think of as such, is well and alive in this country.

Shyamalan is not saying tha

Not only are they white-washing the cast, they are attempting to eradicate all the traditional chinese texts and calligraphy depicted in the animated series. the chinese writings are gonna be replaced by random symbols and markings. Possible attempt by the government to play down the chinese? China is an up and coming economic powerhouse.. Nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand.

What a incredible amount of useless bull shit you have written dpv. alright everyone according to dpv everyone here are a bunch of racists and idiots. good job numb nuts. oh and seradane……..shut your mouth with your money why dont you.

Actually that was a pretty messed up thing to say. I’m sorry.

ok, for real people. if you go to Moviefone.com, you will see that the two guys that are the creaters of the show wrote the movie with M.N.S. They are also wanted the fact that they wanted to make it right as possible.
As for the casting, zuko looks great, Dev petil was in Slumdog Millianaire. he was great.
For the rest, they could have computerise the skin to be darker for Sokka and katara. But if you have seen Twilight then you will know that the guy that plays Jasper is playing Sokka in the movie. look into it all.
M.NIGHT Is GREAT ANYWAYS.

Katara and Sokka should be DARK SKINNED!!!! Has the director even SEEN this t.v series? Why is it whenever a dark skinned person is in a show, people have to make them white in the movies?!?!?!

My only concern… where are Katara’s HAIR LOOPIES???

I do agree with what some of you are saying. But think of it this way, if you’ve read this awesome book, and finaly someone was making a moview based on this book, and you saw it…and sad to say…it didn’t follow the book at all…you’d be dissapointed. Same with cartoons, especially popular ones that grow a big fan base. they want to see these characters come to life. Imagine if they made GI Joe all asian guys…would have been interesting, but I’d say bad judgment. Now if you take main characters and change their race, it may be insulting…just saying. I do hope the movie lives up to the cartoon and see the characters come to life and bring more depth to it. A great example of a director bringing something to life…the lion the witch and the wardrobe. It was like watching the book and cartoon in REAL life. The characters acted as they should (of course bringing more depth to the character), and the plot followed as it did in the book and cartoon. Something were added but it didnt take away to the feel of how the book and cartoon was. Anyone who takes a great book, cartoon, or anything in that sense, and butchers it by killin characters that aren’t suppose to die…and just really making it into their own…are in…no way…BEING ORIGINAL. If they are going to do that…they need to come up with their own idea and still the person who did it first…that’s all I say. I will wish this movie a lot of luck and I hope it is as the cartoon is.

also whats up with katara isn’t she supposed to be darker huh what’s up with u people

Attention everyone hatin’ on the cast of The Last Airbender: if you are upset with the skin colour of the actors/actresses in this film or the general direction the producers went regarding the nationality of the characters…. GO MAKE YOUR OWN GODDAMN FILM YOU PISSY LITTLE BITCHES. Thank you and have a good day.

vina is rite in the show thier asian to me it doesnt seem that hard just to find asian actors nd actresses

I really hope Shyamalan follows the story line
that the original director intended. I also hope that he consulted with the original director when he thought that changing the ethnic backrounds of the cast would be a “good idea.” This story line has great potential and i hope he stick to the story line (i.e. X-men, 300, transformers, and ironman).

It looks to me as though Night has officially fallen in Temptation. Nothing else makes sense to me.

oh and before all you chinese people go psycho on me
im 100% asian too btw…
chinese to be fu*king precise -_-

just because all the damn characters
arents freaking asian (insert race here) etc..
doesnt mean that the film is going to be aweful!!

much love,
che<3

probably will lol..
Aang <333 Toph

i really wish they didnt stop the cartoon. it’s much better and i really loved it ! i think they should make a sequel of it soon. Anyways, the cast for movie sucks !..Ang and all others look horrible !!..

i am very happy with the cast
i like what the director did with the nations, like, the fire nation is arabian, and the water nation is caucasian… i just hope the other nations will look different, not all white people.
but really, THANK GOD jesse mccartney is not zuko. he would suck. and i think dev patel looks like a good zuko!
(sorry for the bad english, it’s not my first language)

oh yeah, indians have green eyes, and so do some chinese; its recesive now but the asian people as a whole migrated straight from india, which means that they were all caucazoid at one time (before they darkened up for various reason).
i wont debate as to which came first african or indian, but native americans and inuits came frome asia major descendants, and unfortunately i guess my people have to claim the most destructive descendants of the human race, the whites (but to be fair they only got that way because they migrated to realy messed up places; and i dont just mean the skin or nlue eyes (the hostility and deception is a survival trait, one that not all of them have over come unfortunately- but we still have to love them if we want them to change)
oh yeah i guess i went off point; blue eyes are a low light evolution, but cold wheteher dark skins could have a eveoled from warm whether darks to carry the trait to (maybe they stayed dark because it retained heat or something; even with out enough sun to stimulate thier melonin)

you know what technically Indians (people from India) are Asian and Dev Patell is Indian by decent, he has a British accent on the count that India was a British colony and genetically were all from Africa which means we are Black or African(genetically). its good that they decided to make the Avatar’s world more realistic where in every body does not look asian or spanish or caucasian, heck Iroh look middle-eastern. seriously would you watch a movie if it were all just asians? or african? or spanish? the avatar’s theme is supposed to be about the diversity of people and that we must all be in harmony or things will go down the drain. i dont really see this movie as a white movie i mean all the fire benders are Indians for crying out loud, i havent seen any earth benders yet but they might be south east asian, maybe polynesians? any way it really shouldnt matter because what matters is the story and the acting everything else, the “color” of the actors is just to help convince you of the world that they are acting in. truth be told i would prefer to see all of them in their original “perceived” asian ancestries i.e japanese, korean, chinese, but remember the viewers were the ones that placed these categories never in the show were they named as such. in that world japanese, chinese, or what ever asian decent was not even a point of interest. they were fire nation, earth kingdom, water tribe or air nomads no asians. so if those four nations were depicted differently in the our world it really should not matter. the actors are not acting like asians but rather as water tribe, fire nation, earth kingdom, and one air nomad.

The characters are clearly based on Pacific Island/Asian culture.

But if they wanted to make a diversified cast, I would have been all for it. But the thing is that they didn’t. 3 of the 4 major cast members are caucasian. One is Indian. None are east asian.

In other words, white characters are the focus with diversity being just a background.

That to me is sad.
Minorities have a hard enough time getting representation on the silver screen. When a story is tailor-made for minority actors, they still get passed up for caucasian actors.

And then Hollywood uses the excuse that’s hard to fight against: “Well we just choose the best actor for the job not caring about race.” The only thing is that it doesn’t work the other way around. Hollywood never hires asian actors for white roles. don’t even think about a black actor or asian actor auditioning for James Bond.

This film already stinks!!! This film will suck… !!!

First of all, if you don’t want to see the movie, then don’t see the movie.

The cast doesn’t align perfectly with the show, but each were chosen for particular reasons that none of us will understand until we’ve actually seen the finished piece. As for the ‘lack of diversity’ – just because from first appearances the main characters look ‘white’ doesn’t mean A) they’re not diverse, or B) that there won’t be a larger, more ‘diverse looking’ representation in the finished movie. To judge diversity based on looks alone is deceiving – we don’t know where the cast is from, what they believe, their sexual orientation, family history, etc.

Anyone noticing, toph is missing! 🙁
and i thought zuko was CUTE

one more word: ZUTARA (L)!

This doesnt make any sense, Aang looks fine in my opinion but Everyon else? what the hell happened? Sokka and Katara are supposed to be dark-skinned, correct? and Zuko’s scar has disapeared? What? why cant the directors and producers just stick to the story? i dont know about you all but when i hear about a movie coming out based on one of my favorite TV shows i want the characters to look like they do in the show. anyways, thats just my say in the grand scheme of things. Farewell.

1. they preferred caucasians. why would an asian audition for a film that prefers caucasians. the process of selection was the one kind of biased and not the ones selected.
2. alteration of some physical characteristics in animation does’nt separate one from a specific race. (e.g. japanese animation)
hair and eyes color and shape are altered to make a character distinct. imagine a japanese animation series whose characters have the same hair and eyes color and shape.just because a character in a japanese anime have green or blue eyes and blonde hair means she’s not one of them or just because katara have blue eyes means she’s not an inuit.
3. just because the characters act or speak like a specific race also mean they are one.

some may not care much about the appearance of the characters in the movie, but for those who loved the series such as myself would want to see the characters look like the ones in the series. in the end of the selection, weather the selected casts are mostly whites or not, the selection should have been opened not just to a specific race…

Subtle racism at it’s best, anyone educated should be able to see this. I’m sure things will change in a couple hundred years time, either way I’m going to see it (huge fan of the animated series).

Vina is being racist!
u wud think she knows that it dusnt matter wot skin color they have as long as u know who they are!!!

and btw ben, if thats your issue, i’m not even talking about races, countries. At least make the cast match the goddamn skin tone.

Coming from a guy whose family (on both sides) is from East Asia (China and Japan respectively), I’m frankly appalled at the casting for this movie.
The original cartoon (which I loved) was based on Asian culture (not the reason I liked it). The fighting styles are mostly/entirely based on different forms of kung fu. The clothing and architecture draws influence from traditional East Asian designs. The word “avatar” comes from Sanskrit and Hinduism. The Fire Nation has strong similarities to Japan. The art style itself draws from anime. The creators based the Southern Water Tribe on the Inuits. Plus, the title of the show has CHINESE CHARACTERS in it (something not included in the movie). Yet somehow, nearly the entire main cast is Caucasian (cast list: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0938283/fullcredits). Pretty much the only Caucasian lead role here is Dev Patel who plays Zuko.
Now I’m not saying the entire cast should be East Asian and Inuit like in the show, that would be absurd and could even be slightly racist as well, but they could have at least made an effort to get some ethnicity matching for the main characters. I mean, it’s not like Asian actors are exactly hard to find, and seeing as how the producers said they were going after “undiscovered” actors/actresses they could have easily found some Native American actors and actresses to play Soka and Katara! I mean, Aang even wears Shaolin monk clothing! Yet they couldn’t get an Asian to play him?!?
Now the producer’s reason for casting three of the four lead rolls as Caucasian is to promote “diversity”. That’s a nice thought, but how is it “diversity” when pretty much all of the protagonists are Caucasian? The answer is that it isn’t.
The saddest part of this is that if the show was based on African culture and all the characters were African on the show, but in the movie the casting wound up like this, I doubt that any of you would say that it wasn’t racist. In fact, there would likely be a huge uproar from the media as a whole, not just from a few people on the internet.

I don´t get why they still called it “The Last airbender”.
In some trailers, they showed that there are other airbenders which are waiting for him. In the cartoon, there are no other airbenders, they´re all dead, Aang is the last one of his kind. That´s why they called it “The Last airbender”.
But this name in the movie , doesn´t make any sense..
Anyway..I hope they´re gonna do “The Last airbender 2 and 3” for the seasons 2 and 3. Because the movie is just about season 1.
I am very excited about this movie.

the show was based only on serveral things which are all asain inspired, martial arts,culture,custumes,…so why change the cast of the main characters to not match…..thats not right if the the story was about native americans and you had a cast of white and asain people playing native americans….why have an asain inspired show(american or not) and have the cast not match..the story didn’t even have to go with it as long as the character’s matched
the show.

About the casting racial casting:

Maybe some of you are just blind…but most characters in animes LOOK white, NOT Asian. You might as well cast a white kid as Aang and say he’s Asian because that’s what these shows do. Blame the artists, not the casting. It’s not racism or under representing Asians in the film industry.

Lols man I just love people who are completely colour blind. Characters are made up of their appearance and personality and the characters losing their appearance makes isnt the character its like if ripley was a man.

Secondly all of them are white then all the badguys look muslim and the only reason there hasnt been major uproar is because m Night is asian and not white so people just assume it aint racist.

Thirdly love how people dont grasp that the reason why in the animation the characters eyes are large is because is common knowledge in animation that the bigger the eyes the easier to animate and express emotion and cant be used as an arguement for whitewash. I am white btw and think this is horrendous, least the film getting bad reviews and noah ringer only got his position because he sent a tape of him doing tae kwon doe and using martial art weapons and an agent instantly thought white boy do kung fu = appealling. He didnt send in acting tape. Again just people think that us white boys deserve everything.

The question you morons whom have no problem should be asking is why cant they be asian?

**round eyes and larger eyes are more expressive for animators, thus it has nothing to do with race or is a reason why they should be white.

Again it just falls down to us white boys and the americans thinking they invented everything. How can you not miss that in the inuit village they the only two white people there hahaha it stands out so much its a joke.
People just a hilarious in how much they miss that paramount felt asians would bring money in but whites will and again why do main characters have to be white? Eh ? You bloody morons why must they be white rather then a asian, native american or black? WHY must they be white?

The actual genders and races of what the elements represent are in Rodney St.Michael’s book, Sync My World: Thief’s Honor GA SK. (myconnected.webs.com)

Air = Yellow “race” = Males = Scholars.

Water = Small Browns = Females = Shamans.

Earth = Blacks = Lesbian = Social Ubuntu Business Class.

Fire = Whites = Gays = Military, Militant Business Class.

Ether or Metal = Big Browns = Bisexuals = Working Class, Bi-military
(females & bis go together like Katara & Sokka or brown females and males).

Therefore Aang should be Chinese.

Katara should be a Malay like a Filipina.

The Earth Kingdom should be African.

Zuko should be White like Hitler, Alexander the Gay or Gen. Arthur McArthur.

The Fire Nation’s army should be like the fiery Sacred Band of Thebes (an ancient elite gay army that Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell troops would be envious of) or the Sturmabteilung, the much-feared homosexual stormtroopers of Hitler.

And the Slumdog Millionaire (casted as Zuko) should be Sokka.

This film is just as messed up as the movie Angels and Demons. The branding of the priests were incorrect.

But anyway, from the guy who gave you the Sixth Sense, which did not portray childhood schizophrenia accurately or anywhere near the real world, what do you expect?

Bisexuals love horror and terror. They also scam people, just like the Wizard of Oz. The old Oz film which is also about the Elements is understandably all-white because they were ignorant back then. People have higher standards now, and realism is a must.

But M.Night, the Wizard of South Asia also has lessons for everyone after conning them:

1) Clearly, when people don’t play roles that fit them, everything is messed up. (e.g. “male” clergy in what should be a female realm, forbidding gays in the military which is their territory)

2) Whites are not fit to play the leading roles of Air and Water in the world scene. Leave that to the ASEAN+3 (China, Japan, Korea and South East Asia).

3) Arabs are not necessarily the greatest evil in the world. Occasionally, they float like Ether to the ranks of Water. It is fiery whites that fit the role of Lucifer or Satan.

4) By acquiring objective reviews from leading critics, they have agreed themselves that these are all factual objective realities.

Thus, the Wizard, even if he is a con man, is also an accidental pseudo teacher. Partly, it’s called sunyata or “emptiness.”

“Since the next harry potter movie hasn’t started filming yet, I fully expect the filmakers to learn from the last airbenders “example” and cast harry as black, ron as mexican, and hermoine as a jew. That’d be perfectly acceptable to everyone right?”

What a strange statement to make. Daniel Radcliffe is Jewish (his mother is, father not), that doesn’t mean that Harry Potter is.