History Trivia / TheLastAirbender

** [[Music/JesseMcCartney Jesse McCartney]] was originally cast as Zuko, since the producers wanted at least one star in the main cast. Paramount soon realized the problem they had created for themselves by whitewashing the ''entire'' cast. They couldn't get rid of Peltz (and Rathbone with her), so [=McCartney=] voluntarily stepped down and was replaced by Dev Patel, fresh from his star-making, Oscar-Winning turn in ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. Unfortunately, Patel's casting actually ''exacerbated'' the problem, as it had the domino effect of necessitating the re-casting of the Fire Nation characters, the film's antagonists, with brown-skinned actors[[note]] for reference - Aasif Mandvi (Zhao) and Patel himself are both British-Indian, Shaun Toub (Iroh) is Persian/Iranian, Cliff Curtis (Ozai) is Māori, and Summer Bishil (Azula) is Indian-Mexican [[/note]], resulting in a film about heroic white kids fighting evil brown people.

** [[Music/JesseMcCartney Jesse McCartney]] was originally cast as Zuko, since the producers wanted at least one star in the main cast. Paramount soon realized the problem they had created for themselves by whitewashing the ''entire'' cast. They couldn't get rid of Peltz (and Rathbone with her), so [=McCartney=] voluntarily stepped down and was replaced by Dev Patel, fresh from his star-making, Oscar-Winning turn in ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. Unfortunately, Patel's casting actually ''exacerbated'' the problem, as it had the domino effect of necessitating the re-casting of the Fire Nation characters, the film's antagonists, with brown-skinned actors[[note]] for reference - Aasif Mandvi (Zhao) and Patel himself are both British-Indian, Shaun Toub (Iroh) is Persian/Iranian, Cliff Curtis (Ozai) is Māori, and Summer Bishil (Azula) is Indian-Mexican [[/note]], resulting in exclusively white heroes facing exclusively POC villains, [[spoiler:with no opportunity to adapt Zuko's HeelFaceTurn because "The Day of Black Sun" is a Book 3 story]].

** Music/JesseMcCartney was originally cast as Zuko, since the producers wanted at least one star in the main cast. Paramount soon realized the problem they had created for themselves by whitewashing the ''entire'' cast. They couldn't get rid of Peltz (and Rathbone with her), so [=McCartney=] voluntarily stepped down and was replaced by Dev Patel, fresh from his star-making, Oscar-Winning turn in ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. Unfortunately, Patel's casting actually ''exacerbated'' the problem, as it had the domino effect of necessitating the re-casting of the Fire Nation characters, the film's antagonists, with brown-skinned actors[[note]] for reference - Aasif Mandvi (Zhao) and Patel himself are both British-Indian, Shaun Toub (Iroh) is Persian/Iranian, Cliff Curtis (Ozai) is Māori, and Summer Bishil (Azula) is Indian-Mexican [[/note]], resulting in exclusively white heroes facing exclusively POC villains, [[spoiler:with no opportunity to adapt Zuko's HeelFaceTurn because "The Day of Black Sun" is a Book 3 story]].

** Music/JesseMccartney was originally cast as Zuko, since the producers wanted at least one star in the main cast. Paramount soon realized the problem they had created for themselves: they had an all white main cast for an adaptation of a series with ''no'' white characters. They couldn't get rid of Peltz (and Rathbone with her), so [=McCartney=] voluntarily stepped down and was replaced by Dev Patel, fresh from his star-making, Oscar-Winning turn in ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. Unfortunately, Patel's casting actually ''exacerbated'' the problem, as it had the domino effect of necessitating the re-casting of the Fire Nation characters, the film's antagonists, with brown-skinned actors[[note]] for reference - Aasif Mandvi (Zhao) and Patel himself are both British-Indian, Shaun Toub (Iroh) is Persian/Iranian, Cliff Curtis (Ozai) is Māori, and Summer Bishil (Azula) is Indian-Mexican [[/note]], resulting in exclusively white heroes facing exclusively POC villains, [[spoiler:with no opportunity to adapt Zuko's HeelFaceTurn because "The Day of Black Sun" is a Book 3 story]].

* StillbornFranchise: The intention behind this film was clearly to be the first of a trilogy, and that the other two seasons of the original show were to be adapted next. Its lackluster performance at the box office put an effective stop to these plans, but even after the film failed, Shyamalan expressed hope that he could one day get a sequel off the ground as late as 2015. Viacom did not share this idea: they would go on to give Creator/{{Netflix}} the go-ahead for their own live-action adaptation (this time a television series), while the franchise's next theatrical outing would be an animated film set in the original series' continuity and overseen by the original creators.

* StillbornFranchise: The intention behind this film was clearly to be the first of a trilogy, and that the other two seasons of the original show were to be adapted next. But its lackluster performance at the box office put an effective stop to these plans. Even after the film failed, Shyamalan expressed hope that he could one day get a sequel off the ground as late as 2015. By 2018, however, the announcement of a live-action series that is to be produced by the original series' co-creators on Netflix effectively killed off any potential sequel films. And if that wasn't enough, 2022 saw the official announcement of a theatrical animated film set in the original series's continuity overseen by the original creators.

* CreatorKiller: Creator/MNightShyamalan’s career [[Film/TheVillage wasn’t]] [[Film/LadyInTheWater exactly]] [[Film/TheHappening spotless]] before this film, but it looked to be the final nail in the coffin. He was neither the screenwriter (though he did get a “story by” credit) nor the director of his next film, ''Film/{{Devil}}'', and his name actually drew jeers from audiences when it appeared in trailers. His next directorial effort, ''Film/AfterEarth'', did not mention him in any promotional material and also avoided showing his name until the ending credits rolled. He has begun a tentative comeback with ''Film/TheVisit'' and ''Film/{{Split}}'', though.

* One of ''The Last Airbender''’s [[UsefulNotes/GoldenRaspberryAward Razzies]] was for Worst Picture of 2010. Another was the one-time “[[SpecialEffectFailure Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3-D]].” It also "won" Worst Screenplay, Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actor (Jackson Rathbone, who also won for his role in [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Twilight Eclipse]]). The film also received four additional nominations, tying it with Eclipse for the most razzie nominations of that year.

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** In a [[https://www.indiewire.com/2019/04/m-night-shyamalan-glass-bad-reviews-1202059607/ 2019 lecture Shyamalan gave at New York University]], he called this along with ''Film/AfterEarth'' "junk movies," with the critical failure they received making him disillusioned with the Hollywood system and leading him to self-fund his own movies in the future.

** Jesse [=McCartney=] was originally cast as Zuko, since the producers wanted at least one star in the main cast. Paramount soon realized the problem they had created for themselves: they had an all white main cast for an adaptation of a series with ''no'' white characters. They couldn't get rid of Peltz (and Rathbone with her), so [=McCartney=] voluntarily stepped down and was replaced by Dev Patel, fresh from his star-making, Oscar-Winning turn in ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. Unfortunately, Patel's casting actually ''exacerbated'' the problem, as it had the domino effect of necessitating the re-casting of the Fire Nation characters, the film's antagonists, with brown-skinned actors[[note]] for reference - Aasif Mandvi (Zhao) and Patel himself are both British-Indian, Shaun Toub (Iroh) is Persian/Iranian, Cliff Curtis (Ozai) is Māori, and Summer Bishil (Azula) is Indian-Mexican [[/note]], resulting in exclusively white heroes facing exclusively POC villains, [[spoiler:with no opportunity to adapt Zuko's HeelFaceTurn because "The Day of Black Sun" is a Book 3 story]].

** Jesse [=McCartney=] was originally cast as Zuko, since the producers wanted at least one star in the main cast. Paramount soon realized the problem they had created for themselves: they had an all white main cast for an adaptation of a series with ''no'' white characters. They couldn't get rid of Peltz (and Rathbone with her), so [=McCartney=] voluntarily stepped down and was replaced by Dev Patel, fresh from his star-making, Oscar-Winning turn in ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. Unfortunately, Patel's casting actually ''exacerbated'' the problem, as it had the domino effect of necessitating the re-casting of the Fire Nation characters, the film's antagonists, with brown-skinned actors[[note]] for reference - Aasif Mandvi (Zhao) and Patel himself are both British-Indian, Shaun Toub (Iroh) is Persian/Iranian, Cliff Curtis (Ozai) is Māori, and Summer Bishil (Azula) is Indian-Mexican [[/note]], resulting in exclusively white heroes facing exclusively POC villains, [[spoiler:with no opportunity for a Fire Nation hero because "The Day of Black Sun", the two-parter that features Zuko's HeelFaceTurn, is a Book 3 story and they only managed to adapt Book 1]].

** Jesse [=McCartney=] was originally cast as Zuko, since the producers wanted at least one star in the main cast. Paramount soon realized the problem they had created for themselves: they had an all white main cast for an adaptation of a series with ''no'' white characters. They couldn't get rid of Peltz (and Rathbone with her), so [=McCartney=] voluntarily stepped down and was replaced by Dev Patel, fresh from his star-making, Oscar-Winning turn in ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. Unfortunately, Patel's casting actually ''exacerbated'' the problem, as it had the domino effect of necessitating the re-casting of the Fire Nation characters, the film's antagonists, with brown-skinned actors[[note]] for reference - Aasif Mandvi (Zhao) and Patel himself are both British-Indian, Shaun Toub (Iroh) is Persian/Iranian, Cliff Curtis (Ozai) is Māori, and Summer Bishil (Azula) is Indian-Mexican [[/note]], resulting in exclusively white heroes facing exclusively POC villains, [[spoiler:and they couldn't even get one of those on the heroes' side because "The Day of Black Sun", the two-parter that features Zuko's HeelFaceTurn, is a Book 3 story and the only film they managed to create only covers Book 1]].

* OldShame: In a [[https://www.indiewire.com/2019/04/m-night-shyamalan-glass-bad-reviews-1202059607/ 2019 lecture Shyamalan gave at New York University]], he called this along with ''Film/AfterEarth'' "junk movies," with the critical failure they received making him disillusioned with the Hollywood system and leading him to self-fund his own movies in the future.

** Post-production was similarly rushed and left in the hands of staff members hopelessly out of their depths, leading to such scenes as the widely derided "pebble dance". By this point, Shyamalan had given up arguing with the overheads, and [=DiMartino=] and Konietzko were only listed as executive producers because they created the original series, not because they were allowed any input into the film itself. Finally, 30 minutes were cut when Paramount decided at the last minute to convert it to 3-D and found there wasn't enough money to convert the entire film. The result was eviscerated by critics and fans of the series, [=DiMartino=] and Konietzko publicly [[DisownedAdaptation disowned the film altogether]], and Shyamalan eventually [[OldShame came to regret his involvement]].

** Jesse [=McCartney=] was originally cast as Zuko, since the producers wanted at least one recognizable name in the main cast. Paramount soon realized the problem they had created for themselves: they had an all white main cast for an adaptation of a series with ''no'' white characters. They couldn't get rid of Peltz (and Rathbone with her), so [=McCartney=] voluntarily stepped down and was replaced by Dev Patel, fresh from his star-making, Oscar-Winning turn in ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. Unfortunately, Patel's casting actually ''exacerbated'' the problem, as it had the domino effect of necessitating the re-casting of the Fire Nation characters, the film's antagonists, with brown-skinned actors[[note]] for reference - Aasif Mandvi (Zhao) and Patel himself are both British-Indian, Shaun Toub (Iroh) is Persian/Iranian, Cliff Curtis (Ozai) is Māori, and Summer Bishil (Azula) is Indian-Mexican [[/note]], resulting in exclusively white heroes facing exclusively POC villains, [[spoiler:and they couldn't even get one of those on the heroes' side because "The Day of Black Sun", the two-parter that features Zuko's HeelFaceTurn, is a Book 3 story and the only film they managed to create only covers Book 1]].

* StillbornFranchise: The intention behind this film was clearly to be the first of a trilogy, and that the other two seasons of the original show were to be adapted next. But its lackluster performance at the box office put an effective stop to these plans. Even after the film failed, Shyamalan expressed hope that he could one day get a sequel off the ground as late as 2015. By 2018, however, the announcement of a live-action series that is to be produced by the original series' co-creators on Netflix effectively killed off any potential sequel films.

* ActorInspiredElement: During the open casting call, creator Creator/MNightShyamalan received a video of Noah Ringer doing performance martial arts. He never originally thought about casting Ringer (saying that he thought "wow, that's cool", but didn't originally intend to have so much of it in, or not [[MundaneMadeAwesome quite so awesome]]), but then called him in for some acting auditions and screen tests to see if he could double anyway, and was apparently so impressed by the boy, who does look a lot like Aang as well, that he was hired.

* ChristmasRushed: The reason this film clocks in at 100 minutes long is that Paramount wouldn’t budge on the lucrative Independence Day Weekend release even though they mandated that it be converted to 3-D. There just wasn’t enough time to convert the original cut of the film and they didn’t want to play two versions of the same film. Ultimately this was all rendered pointless as it managed to roughly break even financially despite its release date.

** Creator/DevPatel admitted that he regretted participating in the film, stating that his ideas were never heard by anyone, and that the experience made him decide not to participate in major studio films.
** Creator/RichardEpcar, who voiced Chief Saikhan in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' didn't like how the film turned out.
* CreatorsFavorite: Shyamalan made no secret that Zuko was his favorite, and "the true hero" of the story.

* OldShame: In a [[https://www.indiewire.com/2019/04/m-night-shyamalan-glass-bad-reviews-1202059607/ 2019 lecture Shyamalan gave at New York University]], he called this along with ''Film/AfterEarth'' "junk movies" and critical failures they have received made him disillusioned with the Hollywood system and led him to self-fund his own movies in the future.

* BoxOfficeBomb: [[SubvertedTrope This was not necessarily a bomb]], having roughly broken even, but Paramount had much higher expectations as to what it should have made. The production budget was $150 million but a blockbuster usually needs to make a little over twice its production budget to be in the green. This total budget includes things like: marketing ($130 million in this case), residuals off the gross for the cast and crew, using partner companies to distribute in foreign markets, and interest to financiers. Box office: $131,772,187 (U.S. and Canada), $319,713,881 (globally). Had the production budget or marketing budget been a bit lower, it would probably have been considered a very modest success.

* MissingTrailerScene: Two of them involve Sokka. One has him flirting with Yue by telling her “I taught him that,” implying that he was talking about Aang. Another one had him cheering during the climactic battle after defeating the Fire Nation. It’s pretty jarring that they were cut, since they were quite in-character for Sokka.

!!!Specific

* FanNickname: Some people have taken to calling this movie's version of Princess Yue "[[UnfortunateCharacterDesign Penis Hair]]".
* ImageSource:
** PowerTattoo
** RaceLift (right row)

* CastTheExpert: Noah Ringer (Aang) was cast more for his martial arts experience (he earned a black belt in Taekwondo at the age of ten, and was very proficient with a staff) than his acting ability; in fact, he had to take acting lessons before shooting started because he’d never acted in front of a green screen before. However, he did seem to have the personality that would fit Aang (energetic, fun-loving, etc.), and he had already shaved his head.
** Ironically, said ability actually lines up with Aang's. Remember, in the show Aang was considered a master airbender by the age of 12, hence the arrow tattoos.

* StarDerailingRole: Most of the performers with major roles in this film saw this happen to them, with Ringer only appearing in one other nuclear BoxOfficeBomb GenreKiller, ''Film/CowboysAndAliens'', the next year, and he hasn't appeared on the big screen since. However, Dev Patel (Zuko), Shaun Toub (Iroh), Cliff Curtis (Ozai) and Seychelle Gabriel (Yue), escaped this.[[note]]Gabriel, as a matter of fact, remained in the Nickelodeon ''Avatar'' franchise and took the major role of Asami Sato in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', which was a StarMakingRole for her.[[/note]] Bryan and Mike even note that getting to meet Seychelle was one of the few positives that came from this train wreck of a film. Likewise, Creator/NicolaPeltz managed to get later roles in ''Series/BatesMotel'' and the ''Transformers'' franchise, since her StageDad Nelson is a businessman and an investor.

** Averted. Shyamalan first heard about the show when his daughter asked to be Katara for Halloween. After watching a few episodes, he decided to make an adaptation almost immediately.

* FanNickname:
** For the FightSceneFailure in the prison camp. Everybody do the Pebble-Dance!
** From that same scene, Katara pushing one soldier to the ground and then just standing there doing nothing else is called the Ka-Tackle.
** The movie’s really {{unfortunate|Implications}} case of RaceLift led to the coining of the term “Racebending.”
** Some people have taken to calling this movie's version of Princess Yue "[[UnfortunateCharacterDesign Penis Hair]]".

** Jesse [=McCartney=] was originally cast as Zuko, since the producers wanted at least one recognizable name in the main cast. Paramount soon realized the problem they had created for themselves: they had an all white main cast for an adaptation of a series with ''no'' white characters. They couldn't get rid of Peltz (and Rathbone with her), so [=McCartney=] voluntarily stepped down and was replaced by Dev Patel, fresh from his star-making, Oscar-Winning turn in ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. Unfortunately, Patel's casting actually ''exacerbated'' the problem, as it had the domino effect of necessitating the re-casting of the Fire Nation characters, the film's antagonists, with brown-skinned actors[[note]] for reference - Aasif Mandvi (Zhao) and Patel himself are both British-Indian, Shaun Toub (Iroh) is Persian/Iranian, Cliff Curtis (Ozai) is Māori, and Summer Bishil (Azula) is Indian-Mexican [[/note]], resulting in exclusively white heroes facing exclusively POC villains, [[spoiler:and they couldn't even get one of those on the heroes' side because "The Day of Black Sun" is a Book 3 story and the only film they managed to create only covers Book 1]].

** Jesse [=McCartney=] was originally cast as Zuko, since the producers wanted at least one recognizable name in the main cast. Paramount soon realized the problem they had created for themselves: they had an all white main cast for an adaptation of a series with ''no'' white characters. They couldn't get rid of Peltz (and Rathbone with her), so [=McCartney=] voluntarily stepped down and was replaced by Dev Patel, fresh from his star-making, Oscar-Winning turn in ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. Unfortunately, Patel's casting actually ''exacerbated'' the problem, as it had the domino effect of necessitating the re-casting of the Fire Nation characters, the film's antagonists, with brown-skinned actors[[note]] for reference - Aasif Mandvi (Zhao) and Patel himself are both British-Indian, Shaun Toub (Iroh) is Persian/Iranian, Cliff Curtis (Ozai) is Māori, and Summer Bishil (Azula) is Indian-Mexican [[/note]], resulting in exclusively white heroes facing exclusively POC villains, [[spoiler:especially since the film's failure and "The Day of Black Sun" being a Book 3 story meant Shyamalan never got to adapt Zuko's HeelFaceTurn]].

** Jesse [=McCartney=] was originally cast as Zuko, since the producers wanted at least one recognizable name in the main cast. Paramount soon realized the problem they had created for themselves: they had an all white main cast for an adaptation of a series with ''no'' white characters. They couldn't get rid of Peltz (and Rathbone with her), so [=McCartney=] voluntarily stepped down and was replaced by Dev Patel, fresh from his star-making, Oscar-Winning turn in ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. Unfortunately, Patel's casting actually ''exacerbated'' the problem, as it had the domino effect of necessitating the re-casting of the Fire Nation characters, the film's antagonists, with brown-skinned actors [[note]] for reference - Aasif Mandvi (Zhao) and Patel himself are both British-Indian, Shaun Toub (Iroh) is Persian/Iranian, Cliff Curtis (Ozai) is Māori, and Summer Bishil (Azula) is Indian-Mexican [[/note]] .

** Creator/NicolaPeltz was cast as Katara largely because [[{{Nepotism}} she's the daughter of businessman Nelson Peltz, who the producers owed a favor]]; her audition tape was described as [[DullSurprise "subpar at best"]]. This one unfair decision led to the infamous whitewashing, as a Caucasian Katara forced the casting of a Caucasian Sokka. Jackson Rathbone was at least a fan of the series who could capture the character's humour, but the producers cut the intentional jokes from the script in the interest of time, leaving the dull characterization of Sokka that landed in the finished product. Noah Ringer as Aang had talent but lacked experience, and felt particularly lost in talking to air for scenes that would be green-screened later.

** Creator/NicolaPeltz was cast as Katara largely because [[{{Nepotism}} she's the daughter of businessman Nelson Peltz, who the producers owed a favor]]; her audition tape was described as [[DullSurprise "subpar at best"]]. A Caucasian Katara forced the casting of a Caucasian Sokka, and Jackson Rathbone was at least a fan of the series who could capture the character's humour; however, the producers cut the intentional jokes from the script in the interest of time, leaving the dull characterization of Sokka that landed in the finished product. Noah Ringer as Aang had talent but lacked experience, and felt particularly lost in talking to air for scenes that would be green-screened later.