‘Avatar 2’ Ditches Papyrus Logo Made Famous By ‘SNL’ Sketch

The much-delayed sequel(s) to James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster hit Avatar are ready to hit theaters, for real this time, as footage from Avatar: The Way of Water has been unveiled at CinemaCon, with an official trailer due to debut in cinemas, with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

The logo for the upcoming sequel was also unveiled, and the internet was quick to point out that the franchise had finally moved on from the Papyrus font, which inspired a now-legendary SNL sketch.

The sketch sees Ryan Gosling play an obsessive man driven to the brink of madness by Avatar’s logo, haunted by the fact that such an expensive blockbuster would be reduced to using a cheap, tacky font associated with “off-brand t-shirts.” The short sketch became a viral sensation and has since accumulated more than 17 million views on YouTube.

The sketch resonated because it was true – Avatar’s original logo really did seem to utilize an ever-so-slightly altered version of Papyrus, as pointed out by a Twitter user.

Amusingly, the comedic sketch proved so powerful, that the logo had been significantly altered by the time Avatar appeared on Disney+ (in case you’d forgotten, Disney owns the franchise now), with Papyrus replaced by another vaguely tribal font.

In fact, the original creator of the Avatar logo, Chris Costello, admitted to watching the SNL sketch when it first aired, but didn’t appear to take the joke personally. In a CBS interview, Costello stated:

“I woke up this morning, Sunday, and my email was full. I had a lot of people telling me, ‘Did you see this Saturday Night Live thing?’ I took a look at it and me and my wife were like cracking up, I mean we couldn’t stop laughing. It was one of the best things I’ve seen.”

While Avatar was a behemothic box office hit when it was first released, much of the hype has since died down, with memory of the Papyrus sketch seeming to have overtaken the movie’s reputation.

Disney plans to combat this by rereleasing a remastered version of the original film on September 23, 2022, so that audiences can refresh their memory.

The Way of Water is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 16, 2022.