Gossip Teen

The Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in California had a visit from The Last Airbender stars Jackson Rathbone and Nicola Peltz as the duo met with fans on Thursday afternoon. Tiger cubs were cuddled, otters were held and pictures were taken.

Rathbone and Peltz will play the live-action version of Sokka and Katara, the Water Tribe siblings who accompany Aang (Noah Ringer) as he journeys to the North Pole, learns waterbending and kicks Fire Nation booty along the way.

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Nickelodeon’s incredibly popular animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender is headed to the big screen with director M. Night Shymalan overseeing the live action film. Jackson Rathbone has left his Twilight character of Jasper Hale behind and plays Sokka, the wisecracking, boomerang-throwing Southern water tribe teen who, along with his sister Katara (Nicola Peltz) help airbender Aang (Noah Ringer) discover his true destiny and restore balance to the world. After casting controversy, Dev Patel has the role of Prince Zuko of the Fire nation and Jesse McCartney is not the banished prince.

The Last Airbender will hit theaters July 2nd, 2010.

With controversy swirling, M. Night Shyamalan has cast Jesse McCartney as Prince Zuko in The Last Airbender. The live action film version of Nickelodeon’s super successful animated show, Avatar: The Last Airbender, is receiving it’s share of criticism due to the all white cast. McCartney had this to say:

“There’s a lot of hard-core fans out there [who] probably know more about it…I’m still learning. This is M. Night’s vision and this is what he wants. To all the fans, I can tell you I’m putting my best foot forward.” He further adds, “I’ve been in kung-fu training for the last month and half-learning all the moves. I’m looking forward to it.”

The rest of the confirmed cast: Noah Ringer as Aang, Jackson Rathbone (he was Jasper in Twilight) as Sokka and Nicola Peltz as Katara.

The uproar is caused by many fans who believe asians actors should be cast as the lead characters. The show itself pulls many different styles of martials arts as inspirations for the movements of ‘bending’ (the ability to manipulate the natural elements.) There is also a distinct anime style to the drawing of the series and of course, asian mythology used thru the show. But were the characters meant to be specifically any particular ethnic group? The movie is due out sometime in 2010.

Jackson Rathbone cast as ‘Sokka’

Nicola Peltz cast as ‘Katara’

Let’s hear from you – what do you think?