Netflix kept the project secret during the audition – including the wrong scenes.
Actor Ken Leung has confused the two “Avatar” franchises. During the audition for the Netflix series that started on Thursday, he thought about applying for James Cameron’s science fiction films instead of “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”
Netflix wrote wrong scenes
However, this confusion was related to Netflix. The streaming service, which produces the live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon cartoon of the same name (2005-2008), kept the project largely under wraps. There were even fake scenes during the auditions for the series, which started airing yesterday. Dialogue set in a bank was intended to distract from the fantasy adventure so that as little news as possible would leak out. Distracting Ken Leung was particularly easy: At the premiere, he told Deadline Hollywood that he didn’t know the original. “Maybe it has something to do with my age,” he said.
Ken Leung: “I thought I was going to turn blue”
He then opened up about Netflix’s efforts to keep the project secret. “It was presented as a different project,” said the American. “When I first heard it was about ‘Avatar,’ I thought I was going to turn blue.” He was referring to James Cameron’s action films with blue-skinned aliens. Amused, he continued to reflect: “Looking back, I think it’s good that I came to the audition unsuspecting. Coming in with ideas can corrupt the process. If you go in unsuspecting, the things that affect the game are completely different. It might never have happened like that if the matter had been approached with certain ideas.”
Watch the trailer for the Netflix film adaptation here:
Ken Leung plays the role of Commander Zhao in the film adaptation. He is one of the main antagonists of the three protagonists Aang, Katara and Sokka. Sent out by the Fire Nation, his task is to capture the eponymous Avatar Aang. Leung described the character: “He’s a hero in his own head – he’s a bit delusional.”