McCartney out of The Last Airbender
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
A last minute casting shake-up on M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender.
Originally announced as Prince Zuko, Jesse McCartney as recently stepped down from the role due to scheduling conflicts with his music career. He wasn’t going to be able to make the martial arts boot camp that Shyamalan has set up for his cast, but he was able to find a replacement.
Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel has been hired to replace McCartney as the Fire Nation’s evil Prince Zuko. Exiled from the Fire Nation by his father, Zuko is sent to capture the Avatar in order to restore his honor and right to the throne. The film, which is the planned first in a trilogy, tells the story of Aang, the successor to a long line of Avatars who must put aside his irresponsible ways and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations. The Last Airbender is being targeted for a July 2nd 2010 release.
Gallery of Images
Posted By:
7 Comments
Subscribe to Comments FeedLeave a Reply
Book of the Month
Y The Last Man Vol. 5In this final Deluxe Edition hardcover collecting Y #49-60, Yorick and Agent 355 prepare for their ultimate quest to reunite the last man with his lost love, while the person, people or thing behind the disaster that wiped out half of humanity is revealed. Then, Yorick Brown's long journey through an Earth populated only by women comes to its dramatic, unexpected conclusion.
Wow they went pretty drastic with this change. I wasnt a fan of Jesse but be had the right body and you guys brought up a valid point of saying he looked the part.
Not sure how I feel about this, my issue is that Dev Patel will always be Anwar from skins to me, haha.
I have not seen Slumdog, but it’s obviously been a critical darling. If that has anything to do with Dev Patel’s acting, I think this may be a good thing.
For me, this is good news. I think Dev Patel is a much better actor than Jesse McCartney could ever hope to be. I also think he looks the part more than McCartney did.
Anyway, I hope he does well in the role, and I really hope that M Night can capture the spirit of the show and make a really fun movie. Hopefully he will do better with material that he didn’t come up with than he has done with his own stuff the last few times.
I think the kid that played Dev’s brother in Slumdog would’ve made a better Zuko, but I’ll hold judgement until I see a trailer
I loved Dev in Slumdog, but hated him in Skins… to me he will always be that drunk guy in New Slang who tried to pick up my mates bird by saying “I’m in Skins you know, we get paid a lot of money”
This movie will be good , I never seen slimdog but i heard good things , so this should be good too
Just great. The world of the Last Airbender is based on ancient East Asian cultures and philosophies, and now the 3 heroes are white and the only lead minority actor is cast as the movie’s villain!
And, all the talk about the “best” actor getting a part is crap. How difficult is to find an Asian-American boy good in martial arts? This is another example of Hollywood white-washing.
I’m a fan of the show, but boycotting the movie. If you care about the movie at all, join the campaign to fix it.
http://derekkirkkim.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-day-in-politics-same-old-racist.html
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=52666529547#/group.php?gid=54866461619&ref=nf