Mom, 'Avatar' and 'Stranger Things' Are Fighting!
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It’s the season of love, joy, and forgiveness—but hey, has anyone told James Cameron as much? Now that Avatar: The Way of Water has crossed the $900 million global box office threshold, the director should be sailing through his holiday break on a cloud of moneyed bliss, but instead, he’s taking shots at another mega-franchise.
The Way of Water, as you may know, has introduced a handful of child characters to the franchise, including Tuk (played by 13-year-old Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and Spider (played by 18-year-old Jack Champion). The film has been in development for so long that these actors have grown up before Cameron’s very eyes—when they were originally cast, Champion was twelve years old, while Bliss, who was born the year Avatar hit theaters (do you feel ancient yet?), was just seven. With two more Avatar films set to land between now and 2028, that could spell trouble for age continuity, but Cameron and company have already anticipated (and solved!) that problem: The Way of Water, the entirety of the third film, and the first act of the fourth film were shot simultaneously. Now that Cameron has managed to suspend teenagers in time, he couldn’t help but throw some shade at Stranger Things, a series that hasn’t exactly pulled off the same feat.
"I love Stranger Things, but you get the Stranger Things effect where they're supposed to still be in high school, and they look like they're 27," Cameron told Entertainment Weekly. Champion was “growing like a weed” during the 18-month production period, he remembers, which saw the young actor age from 14 years old to nearly 16. Puberty—what a drag!
In Stranger Things’ defense, this isn’t exclusively a Stranger Things problem. Ever since Grease cast 29-year-old Olivia Newton John and 33-year-old Stockard Channing as its teenaged leading ladies, Hollywood has asked us to suspend disbelief about the performers playing minors on-screen, time and time again. Cameron may have named Stranger Things as his bête noire, but he could have chosen nearly any currently-airing series about students. The cast of Sex Education have thrown the series into casting chaos by aging out, while The Sex Lives of College Girls features actresses as old as 30 playing 18-year-olds (sorry, Pauline Chalamet, we love you!).
"You know, I love the show,” Cameron concluded. “It's okay, we'll suspend disbelief. We like the characters. But, you know."
We’re in for another decade of Avatar adventures. Tuk and Spider may be stuck in time, but as for us? There’s no telling how much we’ll have aged by 2028.
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