“Avatar”: James Cameron responds to Ryan Gosling’s sketch on the use of papyrus in his logo

5 years ago, in 2017, Ryan Gosling did a sketch for ‘Saturday Night Live’ in which he told his psychologist that he couldn’t even sleep because something was bothering him: the official typeface of the film title “Avatar”, Papyrus. The actor joked about the use of the font and criticized that it could be used for the sequel, ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’. A year later, the possibility that Gosling managed to get the “Avatar” saga to stop using the Papyrus font in its logo was discussed.

Now, with just weeks to go before the franchise’s long-awaited sequel premieres, James Cameron finally breaks his silence and talks about the question of the font used for his logo.

Papyrus is a typeface created by Chris Costello, who defended his typeface against critical jokes from Gosling. Although it has never been officially confirmed, it appears that ‘Avatar’ has used this font, and after the actor’s skit on ‘Saturday Night Live’, the use of Papyrus for the logo of the highest-grossing film in history has become one recurring joke. After all this, Cameron has renewed the logo of his production, thinking of the second film, but still does not differ too much from the one used in ‘Avatar’. According to some media, such as Slash Film, the new logo appears to be the result of taking the Papyrus font and filling it with air.

Cameron has been silent for 5 years on the controversial issue, but now he has decided to speak up. In the January 2023 issue of film magazine Empire (via Slash Film), the director opened up about his film’s logo, joking on the subject, saying the typeface choice prevented him from raising even more money. “Think how much we could have gathered if it weren’t for that damned source.” he commented between laughter.

The director clarified that the choice of font had been at the discretion of the marketing team: “I didn’t know our font was such an out-of-the-box thing; I thought the art department or the title company came up with it. Of course, it’s been mercilessly criticized as a lazy choice, but frankly, I like the font.”

It doesn’t take away your sleep

Cameron took the whole thing very calmly and with a lot of humor, he even decided to get along with Gosling and punch lines in the sketch. “Ryan Gosling needs to get out more, instead of freaking out about our source. Time to get out of your mom’s basement, Ryan! And if Papyrus resonates with issues of indigenous cultures in the public consciousness, then it fits well with ‘Avatar’, So I won’t lose sleep over it.” explained the director.

* ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ will hit theaters later December 16th.