Well… it’s actually happening. After all the jokes and jabs about being behind schedule, the film that was promised almost a decade ago is almost upon us. And based on what’s been previewed in the latest Avatar: The Way Of Water trailer, it’ll certainly be making a James Cameron-sized splash.
Similar to the teaser dropped back in May, today’s promo features sweeping CGI-laden shots of Pandora. In the years since the second highest-grossing film ever, Jake Sully (portrayed by Sam Worthington) and Netiri (portrayed by Zoe Saldana) appear to have raised a family among the peaceful Na’vi clans.
Peace, however, is soon interrupted when the RDA mining operation returns to finish what they started – apparently there’s more “unobtainium” to be collected – and audiences will soon discover the lengths they’ll go to keep each other safe, witness the battles they fight to stay alive, as well as experience the tragedies they endure on the big screen.
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“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,” revealed Zoe Saldana earlier this year.
“I think you really have to brace yourself for it, but it’s going to be an adventure that you will not forget.”
James Cameron himself previously made the hefty call of comparing his sci-fi series to The Godfather trilogy.
“It’s a generational family saga… a continuation of the same characters and about what happens when warriors,” explained the powerhouse director of Terminator and Titanic fame.
“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.”
As expected, this hasn’t exactly made this for casual viewing. Visual scale + scope aside, multiple publications have recently indicated Avatar: The Way of Water’s 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,” 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 had an already considerable duration of 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.
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 has officially reserved December 16th of 2022 for its release date, giving blockbusters from rival studios ample warning to steer clear – check out the latest trailer above.
