Avatar, directed by James Cameron, shook the world when it was first released in December of 2009. To this day, Avatar is the highest-grossing movie of all time reaching $2.5 billion in box offices worldwide. The movie used revolutionary technology for its time and influenced filmmaking immensely. Avatar gained popularity for its use of 3D to immerse viewers into the world.

More than a decade later, Cameron announced the long-awaited sequel Avatar: The Way of Water which will be set 14 years after the original film. Avatar 2 will be released in theaters on December 16th of this year. This film has been in the works since 2013, the original plan was for Avatar 2 to be released in 2014 with Avatar 3, 4, and 5 close to following. The films were met with delay after delay as Cameron drew out the writing process and filming while also meeting production company delays. The result is an incredibly complex written movie with ambitious filming and acting. Scenes from 3 and 4 have already been filmed allowing child actors to age up before the rest of the filming. 

Junior Autumn Beeghly states, “I am extremely excited for the new Avatar movie to come out. My family and I have been waiting for over 10 years for this film to come out and we can’t believe the wait will soon be over.”

As the title suggests, this new film will take place heavily underwater which came with its own set of challenges. Special training was required of the actors as well as innovative ways to film and performance-capture actors in order for the animation to be as seamless as possible.

Entertainment Weekly writes, “If the first film was all about the rain forest, with its cautionary tale about deforestation, the new entries are a love letter to Cameron’s first fascination, the sea.-But setting a story below sea level presents more than a few challenges. The innovative performance-capture process designed for the first Avatar wasn’t intended to work underwater, so Cameron 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.”

Avatar 3 is due to be released in 2024 with 4 and 5 quick to follow in 2026 and 2028. At the end of the series, Avatar will have spanned over almost 2 decades which will reflect in the technology of the movie as well as the storytelling and world-building. 

Zoe Saldana tells fans, “I can get choked up just talking about it because I was able to see just 20 minutes of the second installment right before the year ended last year, and I was speechless. I was moved to tears. I think you really have to brace yourself for it, but it’s going to be an adventure that you will not forget.”