‘The Last Airbender’: Dev Patel in, Jesse McCartney out
They must have been reading our comments thread.
Now it’s Dev Patel, who’s getting all the buzz in Hollywood for starring in Slumdog Millionaire, who will be playing Zuko in writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action feature film The Last Airbender, according to Variety. Patel takes on the role of the Fire Nation’s evil Zuko, which was originally to be played by Jesse McCartney until "schedule conflicts arose", which could be code for "cast at least one non-white actor in a film about Asians, please".
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 Last Airbender, based on Nickelodeon’s Avatar anime, will still be released July 2, 2010.
Ok this is much better. I think Dev has a much better chance of pulling of this complex character.
Oh and they should cast his costar in Slumdog as Azula
Thank goodness: someone who can reasonably embody this role. I, too, suspect that the tremendous negative response to the casting of a blondish, girlie-looking pop-star in this role had an impact on that pop-star suddenly having a schedule conflict. I mean come on, that casting was NUTS.