After several failed adaptations, it seems as though Avatar: The Last Airbender is cursed. While the Netflix adaptation has been renewed for two more seasons, fans have taken the news with a grain of salt. There were several criticisms made about the series, from the acting, the storytelling, and even how the characters were written. However, the one thing that the entire fandom collectively agreed on was that the new series was still much better than the film that came out in 2010.
Having been directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the film was ripped to shreds before it was even released. It had several issues that made it one of the most hated films of all time and it would seem that the director turned into the public’s main enemy.
He was forced to endure the brunt of the dissatisfaction, even though his track record was spotless. However, looking back now that the dust has settled, was Shyamalan really the person to blame for the film’s failure?
Avatar: The Last Airbender – Who Was Pulling The Strings?
One of the biggest issues that the world had with the 2010 film, The Last Airbender, was how it Whitewashed every bit of Color in the series. Indigenous and Asian characters were played by Caucasian actors and all the villains seemed to be people of color. The cherry on top was the fact that the cast mispronounced the names of the characters throughout the entire film.
M. Night Shyamalan was subjected to the majority of the criticism, having this stain on his career forever. The story of why exactly the film had so many errors, however, is quite interesting and shifts the blame elsewhere.
The studio behind the series, Paramount, was responsible for the selection of the cast, as well as the unfortunate-looking sets. They did some severe cost-cutting when making the sets.
Additionally, when the casting was happening, some sources suggested that Nicola Peltz’s father bought her way into the role of Katara. The casting of the rest of the characters was done according to her, and the film ended up making some questionable decisions.
M. Night Shyamalan Was Scapegoated
When M. Night Shyamalan was brought onto the project, he was under the impression that he would be given the authority to make decisions about the cast and the sets. However, the studio told him that he had to work with what he was given. All he was able to bring to the table was the script that he wrote, which was impressive on its own.
The reason for this was that the script had been seen by the co-creators of the original animated show, Bryan Konietzko, and Michael DiMartino. They loved what he had done and gave him their blessing to proceed. Eventually, however, they could not stick around and watch their lives’ work go down the drain and had to walk away from the project after being side-lined.
Unfortunately, the quality of the story could not make up for the poor casting, acting, and visual effects, and Shyamalan was unable to save the project on his own.
M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender is available for streaming on Prime Video.
