Ryan Gosling will hit theaters this week as the star of the hotly anticipated “Blade Runner 2049.” But before he can do battle with replicants, the actor had to take on something from another science-fiction classic: a font.

Gosling hosted the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, and while there might be plenty of ways to address James Cameron’s 2009 film “Avatar” with comedy, “SNL’s” writers went after the use of Papyrus as the font for the title.

“He just highlighted ‘Avatar,’ he clicked the drop-down menu and then he just randomly selected Papyrus like a thoughtless child wandering by a garden just yanking leaves along the way,” Gosling’s character Steve tells his therapist about the designer behind the font choice.

Poor Steven didn’t even know that there are “Avatar” sequels on the way.

CBS caught up with Chris Costello, creator of Papyrus, who woke up Sunday morning to a bunch of email.

“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,” Costello said.

He told CBS that he designed the font right out of college when he was 23.

“I was kind of just struggling with some different life issues, I was studying the Bible, looking for God and this font came to mind, this idea of, thinking about the biblical times and Egypt and the Middle East,” Costello said. “I just started scribbling this alphabet while I was at work and it kind of looked pretty cool.”

The font has been sold and re-sold over the years and packaged with Mac OS, and Costello apologized to fellow designers, saying it was not his intent to have it show up everywhere.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.