Nearly five years after it first premiered, Avatar's James Cameron has finally broken his silence on the hilarious Saturday Night Live font sketch. Though its long-standing popularity remains in question, Cameron's 2009 sci-fi action film has proven to be one of the most surprising hits of the past two decades, situated as the highest-grossing film of all-time with over $2.9 billion grossed across release and re-releases. Avatar's success set Cameron up to build a massive franchise around the alien world of Pandora, with one major change.
While speaking with Empire to discuss the long-in-development first sequel, Avatar's James Cameron was asked about his thoughts on the hilarious Saturday Night Live font sketch criticizing his use of Papyrus for the first film's poster. The writer/director looked towards the bit fairly humorously, joking he could've made more money had he not used it and poked fun back at Ryan Gosling, star of the sketch. Check out Cameron's response below:
Just think of how much we could have grossed if it wasn't for that damn font. I was not aware that our font was an off-the-shelf thing; I assumed the art department or the title company came up with it. Of course, it was trolled mercilessly as a lazy choice, but frankly, I like the font. Ryan Gosling needs to get out more, instead of freaking out over our font. Time to move out of your mom's basement, Ryan! And if Papyrus resonates with the issues of Indigenous cultures in the public consciousness, then that fits well with 'Avatar,' so I'm not losing any sleep over it.
SNL's Avatar Font Sketch Explained
Having premiered during season 43 of the long-running series, Saturday Night Live's font sketch saw Ryan Gosling star as a man who finds himself haunted throughout his daily life by Cameron's decision to use the Papyrus font for Avatar's poster. The three-minute sketch largely plays out like a conspiracy thriller, with Gosling even having a corkboard in his garage reflecting on the font, all while his wife, friends and therapist remain baffled by his obsession with something seemingly so minor. The Saturday Night Live font sketch all culminates in Gosling's character, who criticizes the use of the font as being lazy for a blockbuster production, crashing his car into a fire hydrant and seeing a menacing figure played by Kyle Mooney mouthing the word Papyrus from a nearby house window, further enraging Gosling.
Since its release, Avatar has found itself lampooned for a variety of reasons, including largely pulling its plot from the likes of Pocahontas and Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, though the use of the Papyrus font for its main logo remains one of the more unique talking points. As pointed out in the Saturday Night Live sketch, it's a decision easy enough to overlook when taking in the film as a whole, though considering $237 million was spent producing the sci-fi epic, the decision to use that basic of a font does prove pretty promising. While Cameron appears to take the Avatar font jokes in good stride, it is equally interesting to see him remain in defense of the Papyrus logo, namely in its representation of the Indigenous cultures the writer/director sought to explore in his film.
How Avatar 2 Moved Away From Papyrus Font
Despite his defense of the Papyrus font to date, it seems the graphic designers behind Avatar: The Way of Water took the criticisms close to hear, with the sequel's logo featuring an entirely different font from its predecessor. Much like Avatar before it, though, some have found the new font to be an appropriate continuation of tying in the logos to the themes and aesthetics of the film at hand, keeping in line with the aquatic nature of the upcoming sequel. While audiences await Avatar: The Way of Water's December 16 arrival, they can revisit the hilarious Saturday Night Live font sketch on YouTube and the original Avatar streaming on Disney+.
Source: Empire
