Unfortunately for Avatar: The Last Airbender – and one of its cast members – the James Cameron franchise of the same name is all too confusing.
Avatar and Avatar – you know which ones we’re talking about. With the arrival of Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, it’s safe to say that the James Cameron franchise has taken a back seat.
Most recently, that’s come in the form of Cameron’s 2022 sequel, The Way of Water. Released 13 years after the original, it focused on Jake Sully and Ney’tiri, who have formed a family and must leave their home and explore the regions of Pandora.
It’s easy to confuse the two without context – which is exactly what happened to one cast member before his journey with the Aang gang.
The Last Airbender star thought he was auditioning for different Avatar
Ken Leung, known for playing Commander Zhao in Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, revealed to Deadline that he thought he was auditioning for the James Cameron franchise instead.
Before #AvatarNetflix debuts on Thursday, get familiar with the cast. In this clip, Ken Leung tells us about his character (Commander Zhao) and how he landed the role pic.twitter.com/KTMMu8l337
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) February 20, 2024
“I didn’t know the original [cartoon] at all,” Leung revealed at the show’s premiere. “Maybe it’s an age thing. In fact, when I first heard it was for Avatar – first of all, the audition you couldn’t tell was for Avatar. It was disguised as a different project. When I first heard it was for Avatar, I thought I was gonna be blue.”
“Looking back, I kind of love that I came in blank,” Leung continued. “When you have ideas, you can corrupt a pure process. When you come in blank, things will come into it that will inform your playing of it.”
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In reality, Avatar 2 – The Way of Water – was filmed between 2017-2020, with Avatar 3 also wrapping in 2020. As of 2022, Avatar 4 had reportedly begun production – meaning Leung’s guess wasn’t an illogical one.
Production for Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender began back in 2021, taking place across various parts of Canada.
In our review of the show, we stated: “As intricate and whimsical as Avatar: The Last Airbender looks in live-action format – and as much as the representation delivers – the substance behind it just isn’t there.
“Fans of the original are likely to be raging on Reddit in a matter of minutes after this review drops, and we can’t blame them. But don’t panic too much – it’s definitely a step up from the movie.”
All eight episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender are now available to stream.
