While the fate of M. Night Shyamalan’s proposed trilogy is comtemplated at Paramount Pictures, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan is making sure he’s ready to move forward on the first sequel if given a green light.
In speaking with MTV, Shyamalan offers up some hints about who the main villain in The Last Airbender 2 would be and what tone he hopes to strike. “The third is more ambiguous, but the second one, I’ve written a draft that I’m really happy with and is darker and richer,” he said. “And it has a wonderful antagonist in it in Azula, who’s kind of like our only real, pure antagonist in the series, so I’m excited about that.”
Azula, played by Summer Bishil, had a brief role in The Last Airbender and figures to be much more prominent in the proposed sequel. In the television series, Azula is a destructive Firebending prodigy who becomes obsessed with capturing the Avatar. She eventually ascends to the position of Fire Lord where she loses her sanity.
Currently The Last Airbender has a domestic box office gross of just under half of its estimated $150 million production budget. It will need to perform strong overseas and on Blu-ray Disc/DVD for Paramount to feel comfortable in ponying up the big bucks for a sequel.
