James Cameronhasn’t directed a lot of movies over his long, storied and very successful career, but he has made a big impact almost every time he has stepped behind the camera over the years. It is arguable, and inarguable by certain metrics, that he made his biggest impact with 2009’sAvatar. The movie was a massive hit in every single way. That being the case, people have wondered why we haven’t had a sequel yet? There are reasons for that, but rest assured,Avatar 2is on the way.
Foxhas wanted a sequel toJames Cameron’sAvatarpretty much since the movie hit theaters, and who could blame them?Avatargrossed an insane, unprecedented $2.78 billion at the worldwide box office, which is truly staggering. Even after movies likeJurassic World,Star Wars: The Force Awakensand a ridiculous amount of very popular superhero movies,Avatarremains the highest grossing movie of all-time by a very wide margin. The difference is, most studios would have put pressure to get a sequel to a movie like that out much more quickly, but that hasn’t been the case withAvatar.
Interestingly enough,James Cameronhasn’t directed any other movies in the time since, so it isn’t as though he is focusing his efforts on another directorial project. Sure, he has produced things here or there, but nothing so demanding to prevent him from directingAvatar 2. He has actually been hard at work ever sinceAvatarcame out on his plans for the franchise and that is what has taken so long. He honestly didn’t even know how vast and expansive his plans forAvatar 2and beyond were until he started digging in, which is why this process has been delayed for so long.
There have been many false starts and stops in the years sinceAvatarfirst hit theaters in terms of whenAvatar 2is actually going to get underway. Fans of the first movie have been teased again and again with false reports of shooting happening or things of the like, often fromJames Cameronhimself. Last year, though, he and Fox made it clear that their plans for theAvatarfranchise are finally just about ready and the director is going to pour all of his efforts intoAvatar 2.
Unless there is a really big setback of some kind, it really looks likeAvatar 2will be in production before we know it for real this time. Fans can rest easy and get excited about returning to the world thatJames Cameroncreated nearly a decade ago. So, with the shooting on the highly-anticipated sequel supposedly starting soon, here is what we know aboutAvatar 2.
16James Cameronis directing.
It would be hard to make a case for makingAvatar 2withoutJames Cameron, even though Fox would probably want a sequel to thehighest-grossing movieever made no matter what. Luckily, that won’t be a concern because the Hollywood legend seems hell-bent on spending a good chunk of his remaining years on this Earth makingAvatarmovies and that will start withAvatar 2. In most circumstances, a studio would not give a director nearly a decade to prepare a sequel to such a successful movie, but withJames Cameroncomes box office success. So they are giving him time to work.
The director currently has the two highest-grossing movies ever made, withTitaniccoming in behindAvatar.James Cameronhas seemingly cracked the code on mass appeal and even though he has only directed eight movies, those eight movies really speak to that. FromAlienstoTerminator 2and yes, toAvatar, he has proved that he knows what audiences want. So, if you were a fan of the firstAvatar, great, but even if you weren’t, having him fully involved inAvatar 2is arguably the single largest reason any movie fan should really be looking forward to this movie.
15Audiences will return to Pandora.
Whether you lovedAvataror feel indifferent about it, there is no denying thatJames Cameronwas able to create a fascinating and beautifully crafted cinematic world in Pandora. In a lot of ways, the planet was itself a character in the movie, so it makes perfect sense that we will be returning toPandorainAvatar 2. In the first movie, we were introduced to the planet and sort of learned the rules and got used to how things work there. InAvatar 2, we are going to explore the planet further, which is one of the few things that we do know for sure about the upcoming sequel. For fans of the franchise, getting to take a trip back to Pandora is probably worth the price of admission, soAvatar 2is probably already going to be worth checking out no matter what else happens, because we should be getting our best look at the Na’vi home planet yet.
14Avatar 2 will go underwater.
Never let it be said thatJames Camerondoesn’t have an imagination. One of the things thatJames Cameronis pushing for will be underwater performance capture, since a chunk ofAvatar 2will reportedly explore the oceanic part of Pandora. Performance capture has been an ever evolving, increasingly important aspect of big Hollywood movies, but doing full performance capture underwater forAvatar 2will be something truly groundbreaking.
James Cameron’s long time producing partnerJon Landauspoke quite some time ago about the digital artists who worked onAvatartesting underwater performance capture technology. That was nearly four years ago, so surely they have nailed down what they need to to make it work forAvatar 2.Jon Landaualso explained that yes, they could animate water around the actors, but having them capture their performance while actually being underwater will be a more authentic simulation of the experience, which makes total sense. Logical as it may be, it sounds very expensive, but probably very cool for the viewer whenAvatar 2finally hits theaters.
13Sam Worthington is back as Jake.
No franchise can really be a franchise without a hero and for better or for worse,Sam Worthingtonis the hero of theAvatarfranchise. While Jake Sully may not be as memorable as Ellen Ripley fromAliensorThe Terminatorin terms of being the cornerstone of a franchise,Avatarworked in a big way, so it is hard to argue againstSam Worthingtonin that respect. With that said, looking at the long-term prospects of theAvatarfranchise, which will be kicking off withAvatar 2, Jake is going to have a lot of room to grow.
At the end ofAvatar, Jake had fully assimilated himself into the Na’vi and was permanently transferred into hisAvatarbody. So, while specific details aboutAvatar 2have largely been kept under wraps, it is pretty safe to say we will be seeing a very different Jake in the sequel. We will probably be getting to explore his relationship with Neytiri and how his role has adapted with the Na’vi. That definitely represents some interesting character stuff to explore and should give us a more potentially impactful performance fromSam Worthington.
12Zoe Saldana will return as Neytiri.
Sure,Avatarhad a lot of spectacle to it. One of its biggest selling points was the innovative technology and the world thatJames Cameronwas able to create. But at the core, it was a love story and a spectacle without some sort of emotion to anchor it to isn’t really ever worth much. That being the case, it makes complete sense thatZoe Saldanais coming back as Neytiri. She and Jake left on in a place at the end ofAvatarthat is something that really needs to be explored inAvatar 2. Do they have little blue Na’vi kids? Is Jake having a tough transitional period away from human life that is putting strain on their relationship? There are a lot of questions that need answering and it would be pretty tough to answer them without Neytiri there. That aside,Zoe Saldanadid a great job and was able to be another very strong female character, which is somethingJames Cameronis very good at bringing to his movies. So, he surely wants her back and that looks to be the case.
11Stephen Lang is coming back as the villain.
Every great story needs a great bad guy. That being the case,James Cameronis bringing backStephen LangforAvatar 2. That may seem a bit confusing, since his character Colonel Quaritch was seemingly killed at the end of the firstAvatar. Still,Stephen Langhas stated that he will be filming the sequel, so somehow, some way, he will be back as the bad guy for theAvatarfranchise. It is possible that Colonel Quaritch lived somehow, but that doesn’t seem overly likely. Maybe he had a clone? Maybe he had a twin? It is really hard to know whatJames Cameronhas planned, but having a guy likeStephen Langon board is never a bad thing. Especially considering his most recent turn inDon’t Breathe, he has really proved he can be a menacing presence on screen.
10Sigourney Weaver’s Dr. Grace Augustine will be resurrected.
DirectorJames Cameronhas a very longstanding, great working relationship withSigourney Weaverthat dates back to his work onAliens. She appeared in the firstAvatarbut as fans know, her character Dr. Grace Augustine died. Still,James CameronandSigourney Weaverhave both confirmed she will be back forAvatar 2. How that will happen hasn’t been made clear, but the director did say in an interview a couple of years ago that she will be playing a different character and that she is playing a “more challenging” character. Given that few plot details have been released aboutAvatar 2, it is tough to speculate aboutSigourney Weaver’s new character, but it can only be a benefit to have an actress of her caliber in the movie.
9Norm Spellman is coming back.
OriginalAvatarstar Joel David Moore has been confirmed to reprise his role as scientist Norm Spellman. Norm Spellman is a human anthropologist as well as an avatar driver. It is currently unknown whether or not he had his consciousness transferred into his avatar body, like Jake, his friend and ally. Norm should bring some much needed humor into this sci-fi adventure, much as he did inAvatar.
8Two new characters have been revealed.
Oona Chaplin, perhaps best known for playing Talissa Stark in HBO’sGame of Thrones, has come aboard to play a very important character named Varang. She will be appearing in all four sequels. She is described as a strong and vibrant central character who spans the entire saga. Cliff Curtis, ofFear the Walking Deadfame, is playing a new character named Tonowari, the leader of the Metkayina, a reef clan from Pandora. It hasn’t yet been revealed if these two new characters are connected in any way.
7Avatar 2is the first of four sequels.
Avatarwas released back in 2009 and given the insane success that the movie enjoyed on a global scale, one would have thought a sequel would have been made several years ago.James Camerondid indeed start working onAvatar 2shortly after the release of the first moive, but he found a much larger story to tell in the process. So, we are actually going to be gettingfive Avatar moviesin total, which was revealed byJames Cameronlast year. He has written scripts for all of the movies and intends to shoot all four of the sequels one after another at the same time, which will no doubt be a tremendous undertaking. That being the case, no matter what happens, once cameras start rolling, unless something dramatic changes, we are going to see four sequels toAvatarreleased by Fox. So if you likedAvatar,James Cameronhas been making you wait forAvatar 2for a good reason.
