We were all thinking it back in 2009 when the world was waiting for James Cameron’s $237 million sci-fi epic Avatar to hit theaters, and it looks like we’re all thinking it again now that sequel The Way of Water is due to decide the fate of the franchise’s future later this month. We already have a beloved franchise called Avatar, except this one is one of the most acclaimed animated shows ever, M. Night Shyamalan’s contributions notwithstanding.
Indeed, when we first caught wind of Cameron’s Avatar, more than a few people scratched their heads wondering why this beautiful-looking movie had the same name as Avatar: The Last Airbender, and one Giancarlo Volpe, who directed 19 episodes of the Nickelodeon classic, has sparked the conversation back up.
Volpe cheekily revealed in a tweet that Cameron actually snagged the Avatar name first, and would go on to create a whole bunch of marketing problems for everyone involved.
Some responders pointed out the irony of The Last Airbender arguably making more of an impact than Avatar, which quickly spiraled into a back-and-forth between the Airbender fans and the Cameron faithful.
One Cameron jab even got a reply from Volpe himself, who seemed intent on diffusing the conflict he provided the tinder for in the first place.
But once you get Twitter going on something, only the omnipotent nature of time can have any chance of ending it.
Unlikely animated rivals aside, we’ll just have to see what the future holds for the Avatar franchise, with The Way of Water bearing all the responsibility as it prepares for the box office fight of its life, and with a budget reported to be as high as $400 million for production alone, we certainly wish it the best of luck.