Have you ever wondered why James Cameron‘s Avatar suddenly changed its logo and font? At the time, there was the righteous assumption that perhaps it was mainly done with Disney’s usual knack of marketing its projects but it seems that it was more a reaction to a joke by Saturday Night Live. Yes, you read that correctly, the SNL sketch starring Ryan Gosling jokingly referring to the font as Papyrus is one of the reasons.
Producer Jon Landau got a chance to talk to Entertainment Weekly, where he reflected on the joke and even went on to highlight that the correct font wasn’t actually Papyrus but Toruk. It seems the fact that it had a very plain logo, the SNL sketch in combination with people questioning its actual cultural relevance inspired the need to establish a logo that screamed Avatar.
When we realized that the movie was going to expand into a franchise and we’d have other IPs, we went out and created our own font that we’re now using, and we call it Toruk, and it’s available for people to use. But the Papyrus font is a fun thing, and I also love the fact that… it was certainly several years after the movie came out, and I guess it illustrated to people who were questioning Avatar’s cultural relevance that it was still part of the culture.
Jon Landau
Even with The Way of Water set to make a massive opening box office, and a secured but rare China release, the discussions are still making the rounds on how relevant this franchise truly is. The first film has the heavy burden of having to make $2B to be considered a success but there’s also the dead market at the moment that could drag it down. For now, we have to see what’ll happen once it releases next week.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
