Dev Patel Won’t Star in Franchise Blockbusters After the Disastrous ‘The Last Airbender’

We still maintain there’s a lot to love when it comes to M. Night Shyamalan movies, but the monumental misfire known as The Last Airbender film is not exactly one of them. But at least for fans of the beloved animated series, the grueling experience they associate with that film began and ended in the span of its runtime. For actor Dev Patel, the effects have lingered quite a bit longer than that.

In a lengthy profile with The New York Times (via Indie Wire), the star of the upcoming The Green Knight reveals why he has thus far failed to appear in any major studio blockbuster. Without singling it out by name (because he’s classy like that!), it clearly all goes back to his experience in filming The Last Airbender. As he puts it, “Maybe it’s a fear of how I would fit into that world,” before describing it as “…one of the worst movies I’ve ever done, and I shouldn’t even bring it up, but do a quick IMDb search and you’ll know what it is.”

The infamous 2010 production featured sets that were practically drowning in green screen and visual effects sequences, making a poor match for both director and actor. Patel goes on to explain why being placed in such a situation was simply not ideal:

“I didn’t really flourish in that position. I take my hat off to all those incredible actors that do Marvel movies where it’s, like, big, noisy fans and green screen and tennis balls and whatnot.”

dev patel david lowery interview

Blockbusters or Bust?

Of course, we recently brought you the news that Patel was among the countless hopefuls who ended up auditioning for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Even putting aside the Lucasfilm narrative at the time that the filming would be a throwback to the practical effects-heavy atmosphere of the originals (spoiler alert: both the Original Trilogy and the Sequel Trilogy are loaded with incredible VFX, which should be praised instead of vilified), it’s understandable that Patel would at least attempt to set aside his hesitations for a shot at Star Wars glory.

That didn’t quite pan out in the end, but Dev Patel’s career certainly has. Patel went on to star in the HBO series The Newsroom, Lion, Hotel Mumbai, The Personal History of David Copperfield, and now the highly-anticipated The Green Knight. We’re going to go out on a limb and propose that he isn’t exactly losing much sleep over choosing lower budget films instead of massive blockbusters.

The Green Knight is arriving in U.S. theaters today.

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