Avatar: The Way of Water: What to Expect

Avatar: The Way of Water has taken so long to come out that most people forgot that the iconic blue aliens were in for a sequel

It’s been thirteen years after the original Avatar, which was, for the better part of a decade, the highest-grossing movie of all time. But, do people care or even remember anything about Pandora or that it’s not really a planet but a moon of another? Avatar: The Way of Water, released December 16th 2022, is set in the oceans of Pandora.

Cameron was so ambitious with the film that he spent years developing new technology to film motion capture sequences underwater. Of course, that also means the movie’s budget was astronomical. To even break, Avatar: The Way of Water would need to at least reach the top five in gross terms. That’s at least $2.04 billion, beating Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

Performance capture underwater has never been performed before, which is why the film, originally slated for 2014, was delayed eight years. Filming concluded mid-COVID-19, in September 2020. Its budget has been estimated at $350-400 million, the fourth most expensive film of all time.

@ Digital Spy

So, who’s returning to the film? Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, and Stephen Lang are all reprising their roles, with Sigourney Weaver returning, but in a different role. Stephen Lang played Colonel Miles Quaritch, aka the big bad of the previous film, but apparently, he and other characters were resurrected by a process known as recombination. 

Cameron is confident that his film can find an audience, despite the long delay between the last one. He mentioned in an interview how the success of “Aliens” and “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” are both proofs that he can draw an audience of loyal fans for his movies. On top of that, the initial reception of the trailer was warm, but some fans hope the second film’s screenplay isn’t a rehash of the first one.

That would mean a love story between Na’vi or other creatures from different clans, and this time learning to ride a water alien animal instead of a sky one. The fact the trailer hints towards a soft restart more than a sequel doesn’t help matters. For example, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) would supposedly be the villain of this one and all other possible sequels. Considering the timeline of these films, it might not be until mid-2040 that we’ll see the end of Avatar.

Still, should Avatar: The Way of Water reach or exceed Cameron’s expectations, that would make Cameron the first director with three consecutively released movies grossing two billion dollars each, all of them with a ten-year gap in-between.