I have a deep dread about what this movie will turn out to be like, but still hold out a slim margin of hope that it will pleasantly surprise me. I'll see it either way, I just can't help myself.

Even if it sucks, I can ignore it and will still have the greatness that is the animated series.

one more thing, I"m glad to see that not all the cast will be white washed, and that McCartney isn't Zuko. I could see Dev Patel as Zuko though.

Ridiculous. Where are the Asians?

After watching the tv show, I became excited at the notion of a series of movies based on this series. There is so much that can be done with it and the stories were all so well written.

After hearing Shyamalan was working on it, I immediately felt dread. The man can't seem to make a movie without doing some type of twist or surprise ending.

Then the cast... White kids playing Asians and Eskimos? Look at the characters names alone and you know they aren't supposed to be white. Adding Asians to the background now makes it even more absurd that the lead characters are white.

I hope the movie turns out to be good, but with each new piece of news, my hopes are dashed more and more. To be honest, I quit holding my breath a long time ago...

Apparently the entire movie will feature just one east Asian: Keong Sim.

Absolutely ludicrous. Nickelodeon and Paramount should be f**king ashamed of themselves.

It's not Earth idiots! Look at the world map in the show, looks nothing like Earth! There's no Alaska no Asia there are "nations" like the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Water Tribe and the Air Nomads. It's fictional!!!! Leave things alone!!!

Yay. They feature Keong Sim as the father of the earthbending kid...the guy who gets captured and put on a jailboat.

W00t - glad that Hollywood hasn't broken free of the tradition of only casting Asians as antagonists or people being oppressed.

But wtf isn't Dev Patel Sokka and Nicola replaced by an Indian girl? Iroh and Zuko (Iroh especially) are definitely Asians, even if you presume Aang to be white...

Good job...

*barf!

Definitely not seeing this... What an insult to a great television series.

@ Get a Life!!!! :

Yes, it is a fictional world. A world that just so happens to borrow every little detail from OUR world. There's Chinese writing throughout the series. Many of the characters look Asian. They wear Asian clothing. They have Asian names. Chances are? THEY'RE ASIAN.

A greater case can be made for hiring Asian actors than there can be for white-washing the entire production.

I just signed the petition protesting the discriminatory casting practices of Paramount's The Last Airbender. This 2010 M. Night Shyamalan children's film, adapted from the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, will star white actors playing ethnically Asian characters. In this day and age, casting white actors to play Asian characters--even going so far as to "whitewash" the Asian fantasy setting--is simply ignorant and unacceptable. You can learn more about the film's discriminatory practices at racebending.com [racebending.com] .

The production made a choice. That choice sent a clear message:
"Children of Color: You are not good enough to play the hero, even if that hero shares your ethnicity."

Please join me by signing the petition protesting The Last Airbender, to be presented to the producers of the film: racebending.com/petition [racebending.com]

Have you people even watched the show? None of the characters even look Asian! When did you last see an Eskimo with blue eyes?? Aang couldn't be whiter, and all of the voices (with the exception of Zuko's uncle Ihro) are performed by white actors, and they speak with American accents. Sure, the series has some Oriental influences, but, really - Oriental actors would totally change the look of the show. Are you people seeing things that aren't there? Seems like you're just looking for an excuse to make a fuss, and are simply making a major mountain out of a molehill. I mean, seriously... get over it!

I have to agree with notsofast; none of the characters have Asian features. This is a mythological world, even though it is based on various Oriental traditions. If I go to a movie based on Avatar, I want Katara to look like Katara and Aang to look like Aang, not like someone based on ethnic P.C. There are also flying six-legged Bison, four-winged penguins, and Lion Turtles as big as a mountain. Should we have Appa represented by a normal Buffalo or a non-flying short-eared Lemur in place of Momo? I agree; you guys need to get a life!

Thank you, notsofast and truenuff. I totally agree with you. As for the rest of you, you people need to get a life! You complain about one mistake they make with the cast and they fix it. But do you celebrate? Nooo! Instead you look for another mistake, find it and complain about that. This is an American movie, based on an American TV show and created by American producers, and as such it will feature American actors in the American way.

you guys are complainers man!
avatar is the best
- i dont care if there are no asains or if its fiction
its a movie get over it!

AVATAR RULES!!!

one mistake? Go to racebender.com and see how the colors of the heros and the colors of the people they picked to play them compare and then try to tell me they are white! They are not white. They should not be white in the movie. You guys who are saying people should not complain, you have privilege vomiting out of you in ugly torrents. It is disgusting. People care, and they should care. The studio should care too.

its called spray tan, contacts, and hair dye people. if you really look at the face structure and not the skin color you can really tell that they chose this very well and i dont know of many asians that would fit this look. american indian would fit these better that asians. and if you really want to talk about it they took inspiration from every religion for this tv show chinese words mythical creatures from who know where and peoples of many race can technically be found in all of the show so i would be wrong in saying you should exclude asians from production at all....but include ALL races because that is the only way for it to fit the place of the show.....and also the map that is given on the show does take inspiration from the earth but what earth lacks it what the avatar world has computer graphics make up for in the end...

its called spray tan, contacts, and hair dye people. if you really look at the face structure and not the skin color you can really tell that they chose this very well and i dont know of many asians that would fit this look. american indian would fit these better that asians. and if you really want to talk about it they took inspiration from every religion for this tv show chinese words mythical creatures from who know where and peoples of many race can technically be found in all of the show so i would be wrong in saying you should exclude asians from production at all....but include ALL races because that is the only way for it to fit the place of the show.....and also the map that is given on the show does take inspiration from the earth but what earth lacks it what the avatar world has computer graphics make up for in the end...

Can some one please recast the complete cast and change the director?????

DO NOT MAKE THIS ANOTHER NIGHT-MARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a die hard Avatar fan I am truly disappointed with the cast selection. There are so many other stars that could make this movie AMAZING!!! Maybe Hugh Jackman as Commander Zhao and Duane Johnson as Sparky Sparky Boom Man. Make it happen.

I'm sick of hearing the same pathetic excuses from whites who are obviously racist or have racist tendencies and not know it!

The main excuse being that the characters in the original cartoon "didn't look Asian"!! By 'not looking Asian' they usually focus on the eyes as everything else about them-- hair, facial features, and skin color obviously is Asian. But here are two problems:

1. The animation style is anime or manga/manwa (korean) where characters are drawn with larger eyes to add more expression. Even in Japanese and Korean comics and cartoons where characters are native Asians, they are often drawn with big eyes even if every other feature is Asian looking.

2. The whole 'blue eyes' or eye color thing is part of the Avatar world mythos where bright eye color is a sign of an element bender or one descended of element benders i.e. air-benders have gray eyes, earth-benders have green eyes, fire-benders have yellow eyes, and of course water-benders have blue eyes! Those who pay close attention to the show would know that!! Thus 'blue eyes' is NOT a caucasian trait but one of water-bending!!

Let's face the facts, there has almost NEVER been a popular movie or one based on a popular series released in theatres that has had an Asian actor/actress as main star(s)! I'm talking about the same Hollywood that refuses to cast Bruce Lee or any other Asian for the main role in the 'Kung-fu' series!

Hollywood is racist, pure and simple and the use of white actors to portray Asian characters is nothing new but is slap in the face to EVERYONE, even whites who they think are just as racist and crazy to always want to be the stars even in a supposedly all Asian fantasy world!

Speaking of which, just remember Sci-fi's original movie Earthsea which was based on the popular fantasy novels. For those of you familiar with the books, the vast majority of the peoples in that fantasy world are 'brown' to black, yet in the Sci-fi produced movie the main star (Shawn Ashmore) is white along with a several others with the exception of Danny Glover!

As a fan of fantasy/sci-fi, I grow weary of fictional works that feature an all-white to predominantly white fantasy world! Part of what made the cartoon series Avatar: the Last Airbender so great was that it deviates from this usual white-bread norm! Now Hollywod has to f**k that up too!

i totally agree with lord zervan this casting is way off. An as for you morons who don't see that their asian and inuit characters really didn't watch the show. cari notsofast and trustuff you guys especially are jackasses