This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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The first of the sequel of Avatar is set primarily underwater. After a decade went by in the making, both Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 are mostly set in and around the ocean; introducing a new clan of reef-dwelling Na'vi called the Metkayina.
According to Entertainment Weekly, director James Cameron is returning to Avatar’s native place Pandora with the first of four planned sequels, combining innovative performance-capture and his lifelong love for the ocean. Though the innovative performance-capture process designed for the first Avatar wasn't intended to work underwater, Cameron said that he and his team had to engineer a way to accurately record the actors' tiniest movements and expressions while submerged. That footage was then animated by artists at the multi-Oscar-winning visual-effects company Weta Digital. Much of the performance-capture filming took place in a 900,000-gallon tank (built specifically for the sequels), which could mimic the ocean's swirling currents and crashing waves.
For the complicated performance-capture scenes, James Cameron hired experts in underwater dance and gymnastics. Many of the cast members prepared for the plunge by getting scuba-certified. Cameron began planning the sequel by himself in 2012, bringing in a writing team in 2013 that helped outline four stories that would stretch across Pandora's universe. Filming on Avatar 2 started in 2017, with a story set about 14 years after the original: Former human soldier Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Na'vi warrior Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have settled down and started a family, and much of the film centers on their preteen offspring.
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Producer Jon Landau explains Avatar 2 as, “Ultimately, the sequels are a story about family, and the lengths parents will go through to keep that family together and keep them safe. I always say that Jim's movies have universal themes — and really, there's no more universal theme than family.”
Cameron also noted that the theatrical landscape has shifted wildly since the first Avatar hit theaters. In 2009, Netflix streaming was just starting to gain popularity. In a new era of superheroes and streamers, Cameron hopes, 13 years later, that audiences will still connect with his vision of distant planets and adventure. After all, in 2019 Avengers: Endgame surpassed Avatar as the biggest movie of all time, but Avatar snatched its crown back after a China rerelease in early 2021, setting a new record with an all-time haul of $2.847 billion worldwide (besting Endgame by almost $50 million).
“The big issue is: Are we going to make any damn money?" Cameron said of his planned sequels. "Big, expensive films have got to make a lot of money. We're in a new world post-COVID, post-streaming. Maybe those [box office] numbers will never be seen again. Who knows? It's all a big roll of the dice.”
Avatar 2 will see the return of Sigourney Weaver is returning in a top secret new role after dying in the first film. Edie Falco joins the cast as General Ardmore, a high-ranking member of the human military organization RDA (which clashed with the native Na'vi in the first movie). Avatar 2 also marks a reunion between Cameron and his Titanic star Winslet. The 46-year-old Oscar and Emmy winner plays one of the Metkayina, a mysterious character named Ronal.
After topping the box office with 2009's Avatar, the first of the four sequels is set to hit the theaters on December 16, 2022. Principal photography has already wrapped on Avatar 3 (due in 2024), and Weta has begun early postproduction on some scenes. The fourth and fifth movies are currently set for 2026 and 2028.
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