AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER Director M. Night Shyamalan Gets Candid On What Went Wrong With His AVATAR Movie

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER Director M. Night Shyamalan Gets Candid On What Went Wrong With His AVATAR Movie

M. Night Shyamalan (Unbreakable) has reflected on the experience of making The Last Airbender, getting surprisingly candid about where things went wrong with his live-action take on the Nickelodeon series.

By JoshWilding - Feb 03, 2023 09:02 AM EST
Filed Under: Anime & Manga
Source: THR (via AnimeMojo.com)

2010's The Last Airbender was the long-awaited live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon's popular animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, but to say it failed to live up to expectations would be an understatement. 

The American anime-influenced TV show is nothing short of beloved, with its rich mythology and compelling characters helping it stand out as one of animation's best offerings in the mid-2000s. This movie, however, was surrounded by controversy from the beginning, particularly as white actors ended up being cast in roles inspired by Inuit and East Asian cultures.

While that was undoubtedly problematic, a bigger issue for the studio was that The Last Airbender received scathing reviews from fans and critics alike, earning a so-so $319 million at the worldwide box office. 

Glass and Knock at the Cabin helmer M. Night Shyamalan was in charge of the movie, and in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter (via AnimeMojo.com), he got candid about where things went wrong. 

"All of us go through moments in our lives where we want to be accepted," the filmmaker starts. "We get tired of the fight and having to defend who we are. And tacitly, or sometimes overtly, they’ll say, 'You are wrong for doing it this way. You’re arrogant. If you just do this, this and this, it’ll all work out for you.' And I went, 'OK, maybe you’re right.'" 

"So I made a genuine effort to join the system, but I learned that the special thing that makes me happy was hard to do within that system. It was so wonderful to have that opportunity, but there are so many people who are so much better at that kind of storytelling than I am."

"I was looking for others to make me safe," Shyamalan concludes. "I was looking for the system to embrace me and take care of me, but that isn’t the way the world is."

We do believe that the director really tried to make a great movie with The Last Airbender, and there are moments in there that still impress to this day. However, he clearly struggled with the pressures of big budget filmmaking and the lofty expectations that accompany any property based on one as beloved as Avatar

Now, fans are hoping the franchise will find redemption with an upcoming live-action Netflix series that definitely appears to be sticking much closer to the animated series it's based on. 

That's expected to arrive on the streaming service next summer. As always, you'll want to keep checking AnimeMojo.com for updates on that as we have them. 

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Matchesz
Matchesz - 2/3/2023, 9:04 AM
Huh ?
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 2/3/2023, 9:28 AM
@Matchesz - seemed pretty clear to me.
NubaX
NubaX - 2/3/2023, 10:32 AM
@Matchesz - EXCATLY!!!
He's dancing around the blunt truth. He WHITE WASHED the main characters, they couldn't even say their names correctly, (UNG instead of Aang), That Little white girl had a Big A$$ BELL PEPPER NOSE on top of the fact the she was WHITE, all the Villians were Indian, it was just a mis cast, White Washed Hot Messed.

You SOLD OUT & TAPPED DANCED!

THE END!
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 2/3/2023, 11:00 AM
@NubaX - he didn’t dance around it. He said he wasn’t good at it.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 2/3/2023, 11:37 AM
@Matchesz -
It just sucked is all.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 2/3/2023, 3:17 PM
@philinterrupted - nothing clear about it. This was a word salad
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 2/3/2023, 3:41 PM
@McMurdo -
TheRose
TheRose - 2/3/2023, 9:04 AM
"So I made a genuine effort to join the system, but I learned that the special thing that makes me happy was hard to do within that system."

*Shyamalan proceeds to play out kink where everyone's names are pronounced incorrectly*
Taonrey
Taonrey - 2/3/2023, 10:23 AM
@TheRose - dude didn’t the opposite of join the system
Fares
Fares - 2/3/2023, 9:11 AM
The movie doesn't hold a candle to the series, but I don't think it's the worst thing in the world.
TheWalkingCuban
TheWalkingCuban - 2/3/2023, 9:27 AM
@Fares - universe, universe.
Superheromoviefan
Superheromoviefan - 2/3/2023, 9:13 AM
"system"?
dude, this was your movie, maybe by system you mean casting white kids for Inuit?
DalekCraigWasson
DalekCraigWasson - 2/3/2023, 1:16 PM
@Superheromoviefan - Yeah, but that WAS a top down decision since Nicola Peltz' film financier dad forced her on Shyamalan and then Sokka had to be white too.
pucrepeap
pucrepeap - 2/3/2023, 9:16 AM
What the heck is he talking about? They couldn't even pronounce the names correctly.
Blastaar
Blastaar - 2/3/2023, 9:21 AM
It's even weirder with him being Asian and what he did with the main character.
EskimoJ
EskimoJ - 2/3/2023, 10:42 AM
@Blastaar - Then again, not really that weird...
Blastaar
Blastaar - 2/3/2023, 11:00 AM
@EskimoJ - True, especially after reading what he said.
LSHF
LSHF - 2/3/2023, 9:22 AM
That was a pretty vague explanation.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 2/3/2023, 9:23 AM
Bro it was just ASS. Simple as that. Unnecessary over explanation trying to make it seem like it was this deep thing lol. Just saying a whole lot of nothing with all those words.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 2/3/2023, 11:39 AM
@GhostDog -
A spoined "auteur" who made a decent move decades ago and has been shoveling out the same thing over and over and over and over.
Kadara
Kadara - 2/3/2023, 9:27 AM
Can anyone translate what he's trying to say there? He wanted to accepted by the system so he ruined a great anime?
philinterrupted
philinterrupted - 2/3/2023, 9:29 AM
@Kadara - he said people pushed him into making it and he admits that he wasn’t good at making it.
Kadara
Kadara - 2/3/2023, 10:54 AM
@philinterrupted - Aah I see thanks☺️
Goldboink
Goldboink - 2/3/2023, 11:41 AM
@Kadara -
What he is saying is that his box office nubmers have been going down ever since his first movie and he made an attempt at making a certified hit but, as it turns out, he can only do the creepy stuff that not so many people like.

Good for him.
TheWalkingCuban
TheWalkingCuban - 2/3/2023, 9:29 AM
“ by that point, my movies had already begun to suck, and the twist this time, with that this one also, would suck. I still got it!”
SATW42
SATW42 - 2/3/2023, 9:32 AM
Clearly the main problem was not enough blue people and he shouldve waited two movies to introduce the fire nation
MrDandy
MrDandy - 2/3/2023, 9:34 AM
Sounds like he’s skirting around the idea that he wasn’t ready to handle a big blockbuster and got caught up in studio politics and demands.

However this is misleading. He is still to blame for not being able to navigate the studio system and everyone is at blame for butchering one of the most beloved media properties of recent memory.

He made a bad movie. Period.
SteelGunZ
SteelGunZ - 2/3/2023, 1:46 PM
@MrDandy - But they should saw this coming because he always makes bad movies.
GetsugaTensho22
GetsugaTensho22 - 2/3/2023, 9:57 AM
Where did my comment go?
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 2/3/2023, 10:02 AM
I honestly have no idea what he's trying to say with this. Kinda sounds like he couldn't handle adapting to the world of making big budget movies, but I'm not sure.
DianaGohan
DianaGohan - 2/3/2023, 10:04 AM
Okay I can see Shamalayan's side in some of the decisions that happened in the movie that were outside of his control. Like some of the casting decisions (Katara's actress Nicola Peltz for example was someone one of the producers requested/demanded be in due to her being the daughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz) and the decision to just do a straight up adaptation of the source material instead of oh I don't know telling an ORIGINAL STORY in the Avatar universe. However a lot of the problem was still not only his own lack of skill, but that tonally and conceptually he was just the WRONG pick for this series. Like seriously why would you drain so much of the humor and spirit out of a show that was brimming with it especially since even it's contemporaies like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings still had a fair amount of comedy in their fantasy stories. That was on Shamalayan and yeah a bad call and quite frankly even though he's done some good movies he's never done a project as good as Avatar The Last Airbender series so yeah ATLA was honestly too good for him and deserved a better director to make a live action take on the source material.
soupysales
soupysales - 2/3/2023, 4:01 PM
@DianaGohan - it's similar to what was done with "the wheel of time"...the humor was taken out...made grim...kids were aged up...the things that make the wheel special, have been removed because someone high up thought it would be better...this thing always has happened, and will continue to happen...there are plenty of directors/writers etc who have totally screwed up the original material for god knows what reason...i find it funny that m night is so polarizing...no one got up in arms when "john carter" crashed and burned...or any other movie from a beloved story was screwed over...but m night...people just seem to love to hate him
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 2/3/2023, 10:21 AM
@heavymetal4life


@regularmovieguy




Saw knock at the cabin. Pretty damn good. M. Night really did a great job. Tension and kinda [frick]ed up in parts .



8 out of 10💪❤️💯🔥
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 2/3/2023, 11:14 AM
@AmazingFILMporg

Awesome, glad you liked it. I think I’m going to see it on Tuesday.
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 2/3/2023, 11:52 AM
@regularmovieguy -


I also realized how influenced these new directors are by M. night. Alot of A24 style is all M. Night when you think about it💁🤝💪❤️💯
Eagles0589
Eagles0589 - 2/3/2023, 10:32 AM
I completely checked out once they pronounced Aang wrong. How in hell do you mispronounce the lead character's name. Imagine if Marvel said Tooney Stark instead of Tony Stark.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 2/3/2023, 10:42 AM
@Eagles0589 - Ong! Lmao
CassianAndor
CassianAndor - 2/3/2023, 12:41 PM
@Eagles0589 - As far as Marvel goes I did notice this in Wakanda Forever (which I finally watched the other day on Disney+) with Namor. Namor himself and the other Talokanil all pronounce it nah-MORE. But the Wakandans all day NAY-more.
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