Avatar 2 might have finally hit theatres, but in the decade between the sequel and the first science fiction movie, there’s one joke that has stayed consistent throughout: the fact that the logo for the 2009 animated movie used the generic Papyrus font, which comes packaged with your standard Microsoft Word.
In an interview with BBC Radio 1, James Cameron, director of Avatar 2, shared some thoughts on the long-running joke and the infamous SNL sketch starring Ryan Gosling. “It haunts me,” he joked, quoting the sketch. “It is pretty funny — I’m just astonished that they spent that much money on a little cinematic vignette that’s around such a wispy thin concept.”
Discussing his reaction to the sketch, Cameron recalled, “I said, ‘Alright guys, now we’re doubling down, we’re using Papyrus for everything’. The funniest thing about that whole story is that I didn’t even know it was Papyrus, nobody asked me,” he added. “I just thought that the art department had come up with this cool font.”
You might have thought Cameron was done talking about the infamous sketch — but you’re wrong. In an interview with Empire, he also joked about how Gosling seemed to be so wound up over the font in the first place.
“Ryan Gosling needs to get out more, instead of freaking out over our font. Time to move out of your mom’s basement, Ryan!” he told the outlet. “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.”
To be fair, if our movie had just surpassed $600M at the global box office, we wouldn’t be feeling too upset either. While you wait for Avatar 3, take a moment to read about the Avatar 2 cast and or decipher the sequel’s final act with our Avatar 2 ending explained.