Omg all these pics make it look like its going to be as much as a failure as DB. I expect the same for when CB comes out.
Has there even been any word on that aside from Keanu being cast? Maybe it'll die in Production Hell. And Akira is also taking a long ass time and I'm still undecided whether or not
possible direction from the Book of Eli's Hughes Bros. is encouraging or not.
And yes the characters don't look alike at ALL. And fuck Shamyalan for trying to cast indians for parts they shouldn't even been doing (cause they don't look like the characters).
I would've done:
AIR: Asian, emphasis on peoples of Tibet, India, or China. They're based on monks anyway. From a Hollyweird standpoint, most of the Air Nomads are dead so there wouldn't be a hell of a lot to cast other than Aang, Monk Gyatso, and Avatar Yangchen for flashback purposes.
WATER: Native American, Inuit, island people like the Maori and Tongans, possible some Latino.
EARTH: This is the hugest, most diverse set of people. The ruling people I would go with Korean and Chinese and other East Asian people, specifically the Earth King, the Dai-li and Long Feng*, the officials like Ju-dee, and the elite rich like Toph Bei-fong. (Who, as you note, all have freaking Asian names!) Japanese for the Kyoshi Island people. There's a character called Guru Patik who's clearly Indian, who would likely be in a third movie should it be made. Sandbenders would be Middle Eastern, African peoples, etc. However, there's refugees, merchants, side characters like Bumi and the Boulder, and a vast array of other people who could be cast as almost any ethnicity.
*Long Feng was voiced brilliantly by Clancy Brown, however I'm certain if they get to a second movie, god forbid, they will be certain to make him Asian because he's BAD and therefore can't be white in this universe.
FIRE: Chinese and East Asian for the ruling class, including every brown guy in this freaking thread. For the army, generals, and such, it could probably be mixed. Especially for those away from home, since the Fire Nation has multiple colonies. JASON ISAACS as Zhou goddammit. Sifu Kisu should play Master Piandao, since the character was freaking modeled after him. The archers looked different than the ruling class, so they could probably be any race. The Sun People are clearly Native American types, prime for Latino casting.
There's also some dragons and spirits who could really be anybody.
The vast majority of props, writing, architecture, martials arts, philosophy, etc takes from China, Korea, Indian, and Native peoples. The majority of the characters were designed based off of the Korean animators themselves, their friends and family. They should've been 80-90% of the casting.
Also, when this movie was casted, lead roles and such specifically asked for Caucasian. When it was time for extras, everyone else was invited and told to wear their headscarves, kimonos, and lederhosen. (I'm not being sarcastic either! That really happened!)