Multiple publications have indicated Avatar: The Way of Water runtime will be a bladder-testing three hours and ten minutes.
“I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours,” director James Cameron previously said of his long-awaited $250 million sequel in an exclusive interview with Empire Magazine.
“I can almost write this part of the review. ‘The agonisingly long three-hour movie…’ It’s like, give me a fucking break. I’ve watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row. Here’s the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it’s okay to get up and go pee.”
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For reference, the first instalment, which is currently the second-highest grossing film of all time after Gone With The Wind when adjusted for inflation, ran for an already considerable 162 minutes (two hours and 42 minutes). So anyone who had trouble back in 2009 should probably stick to a regular-sized beverage, and definitely hit the head beforehand.
Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water will chronicle the Sully family, the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, as well as the tragedies they endure.
James Cameron previously made the hefty call of comparing his sci-fi saga to The Godfather series.
“It’s a generational family saga… a continuation of the same characters and about what happens when warriors,” said the man himself.
“Willing to go on suicide charges and leap off cliffs onto the backs of big orange Toruks, grow up, and have their own kids. Now, the kids are the change-makers. It’s interesting.”
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“One of the strengths of James Cameron’s scripts is the almost universal and relatable themes that he weaves into them,” producer Jon Landau told the audience in attendance at CinemaCon 2022.
“And there’s no more relatable theme than family. At the centre of each of our four sequels will be the Sully family. Jake and Neytiri’s family.”
“Each sequel will play out as a standalone movie. Each story will come to its own conclusion. Each movie will deliver the audience fulfilling emotional resolutions in each and every film. However, when looked at as a whole, the journey across all four movies will create an even larger, connected epic saga.”
“I can get choked up just talking about it because I was able to see just 20 minutes of the second instalment right before the year ended last year, and I was speechless. I was moved to tears,” said Zoe Saldana.
“I think you really have to brace yourself for it, but it’s going to be an adventure that you will not forget.”
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In addition to Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, the cast of Avatar: The Way of Water has welcomed Kate Winslet, Edie Falco, Michelle Yeoh, Brendan Cowell, Vin Diesel, and even Jermaine Clement; while re-welcoming the likes of Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, Matt Gerald, and Sigourney Weaver – the latter taking on an all-new character named Kiri, adoptive teenage daughter to Worthington’s Jake Sully and Saldana’s Neytiri.
Assuming the rest of the franchise’s production timeline plays out as intended, here’s when we can expect the remaining three films thereafter (titles subject to change):
- Avatar 3: The Seed Bearer – December 20th of 2024
- Avatar 4: The Tulkun Rider – December 18th of 2026
- Avatar 5: The Quest for Eywa – December 22nd of 2028
James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, on the other hand, has December 16th of 2022 reserved for it’s release date, giving competing blockbusters ample warning to steer clear – check out the trailer above.
