“A little bit of sh-t”: Monkey Man Star Dev Patel Revealed His Honest Feelings About Avatar: The Last Airbender Movie He Still Regrets Today
The live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender is making headlines for all the great reasons. The 8-episode-led Netflix series has already secured a spot in the list of top 10 shows on the leading streaming giant. Developed by Showrunner Albert Kim, Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered on February 22, 2024 on Netflix. However, after the great reception, Netflix’s live-action adaptation was compared to M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Dev Patel who played a significant part in the movie publicly regretted his involvement in M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Dev Patel On His Association With M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender
M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender marked the second biggest project of Dev Patel. He played the character of Prince Zuko and has been quite outspoken about the terrible adaptation of the widely watched Nickelodeon series. As reported by Screen Rant, Patel even labeled the movie as “a little bit sh*t” during the Toronto International Film Festival back in 2015, when a fan asked him to sign a poster.
During an interview with The Guardian in February 2015, Dev Patel revealed he was not even interested in the promotion of Avatar: The Last Airbender. He mentioned that it was difficult to promote a project he did not believe in. The Monkey Man actor said-
“I just remember being totally overwhelmed by the whole experience. It’s hard promoting a film you didn’t enjoy and don’t fully believe in, and I felt bad. I felt sorry that I’d let these fans down because I was a big fan of the cartoon it was based on growing up. Someone’s going to reboot it and do it right, for sure. But I was at the stage in my career where you don’t have any say. And on paper, it looked great.”
Dev Patel was nominated at the Golden Raspberry Awards in the Worst Supporting Actor category for his performance as the fire-bending prince Zuko. With a production budget of $150 million, M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender could secure $319.7 million only.
M. Night Shyamalan On The Massive Box Office Failure Of Avatar: The Last Airbender
Despite giving blockbuster movies like The Sixth Sense, and Signs, M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender failed to create a mark both critically and commercially. After being subjected to severe criticism from movie experts and his fans, Shyamalan opened up on the massive failure of Avatar: The Last Airbender during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in January 2023. The Lady In Water filmmaker said-
All of us go through moments in our lives where we want to be accepted. We get tired of the fight and having to defend who we are. And tacitly, or sometimes overtly, they’ll say, “You are wrong for doing it this way. You’re arrogant. If you just do this, this, and this, it’ll all work out for you.” And I went, “OK, maybe you’re right.”
He further continued to say
So I made a genuine effort to join the system, but I learned that the special thing that makes me happy was hard to do within that system. It was so wonderful to have that opportunity, but there are so many people who are so much better at that kind of storytelling than I am.
After the premiere of Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender fans are hoping that it would not repeat the similar mistakes made by M. Night Shyamalan in the doomed adaptation.
