We are almost a month away from James Cameron's long-awaited sequel, “Avatar: The Way of Water”. For those wondering what could happen in a sequel that is essentially thirteen years too late, have no fear because I’ve provided five things we know for certain about this upcoming film.
“Avatar: The Way of Water” Takes Place Over 10 Years After the First
We left Jake Sully and Pandora over thirteen years ago (an eternity in Hollywood) and Cameron seems to take this into account with “The Way of Water”. Time has passed—fourteen years, to be exact—and Sully and Neytiri have grown a family. Their oldest appears to be a teenager, which fits with the fourteen-year span of time. It’s not clear if Jake has had any connection with his human past during this timeframe, but with the return of the RDA, his past certainly isn’t left behind him. It will be interesting to see how Sully has adapted to Pandora in this time and what his relationship is like to the tribe of forest dwelling Na'vi.
2. Jake Sully has Adopted a Son
Cameron and his crew have kept much of the story revolving around “Avatar: The Way of Water” hush-hush, but one thing that was revealed was the fact Jake has adopted a young teenage boy named Spider. During an interview with Empire, producer Jon Landau told us that Spider was adopted by Jake because he was too small to return to Earth. This sets up a tense dynamic between Jake and his wife, Neytiri, being that the Na’vi sees the boy as the embodiment of the humans that destroyed her world and killed her father. This is the kind of character development we’ve wanted from Cameron and are excited to see how it plays out on the screen!
3. Stephen Lang Returns as Colonel Quaritch
Another tidbit of story revealed to audiences is the return of Colonel Miles Quaritch to Pandora. Although we don't outright see the military fanatic in the latest trailer, it is probably safe to say his casting means he'll be involved in some fashion. Stephen Lang, besides confirming his role in the new film, has come out saying he's going to appear in the first three movies. Here's my prediction based on Cameron's storytelling abilities: Lang is going to join forces with Sully and the Na'vi. Heck, we even see his Avatar in the trailer!
4. James Cameron Developed a New Camera for this Film
We talked about this on our podcast, but Cameron is not only a decent director, he’s always a heck of an inventor. It seems like the man must come up with something that revolutionizes film in order for him to make a film. Well, he’s at it again with “The Way of Water” in inventing an entirely new Venice Camera. In partnership with Sony, this camera is lighter and can capture digitally created images in deeper, richer colors. It was also developed to film underwater, something that was obviously needed given the title of the sequel. It is rumored that this need for underwater capture was part of the reason “The Way of Water” was delayed for so long, as the technology needed to be created first!
5. Cameron has a Backup Plan if “The Way of Water” Tanks
Audiences aren’t the only ones wondering if thirteen years is too long for the ‘Avatar’ franchise to produce its next film. After all, the hype was massive surrounding the first movie as it topped the box offices (beating Cameron’s other top grossing film, “Titanic”) and has since become the largest grossing film of all time. Yet, despite being crowned with such success, Cameron has said he plans to wrap up filming after “Avatar 3” if the box office shows he’s missed the wave. Originally planned as a five movie saga, this would be a devastating blow to Cameron’s Pandora and the storyline he’s taken decades to write. Regardless of what I might say about Cameron’s storytelling abilities, he is really the only director out there creating fantasy worlds from scratch–and that’s worth praising.
So there you have it, five things we know for certain about the upcoming “Avatar” film which hits theaters on December 16th. If you like this kind of content, please be sure to subscribe to our newsletter and leave a comment below!