The world was a much different place when James Cameron released Avatar back in 2009, and when the first of the four sequels finally hits theaters next year, it will have been thirteen years since we were first introduced to the world of Pandora. That’s a hell of a wait, but we can only hope that it will be worth it. While speaking with Total Film, Avatar franchise producer Jon Landau dropped a few details about the upcoming sequel.
Avatar 2 will once again follow the story of Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), who are now parents. Unfortunately, Jon Landau says that the Resources Development Administration (RDA) has returned to Pandora and forces Jake’s family to flee to a “safe harbor” at the reef.
And when you get to the reef, there’s a clan we call the Metkayina. The Sullys are no longer in the environment that they know, the rainforest. They become the fish out of water. They become the fish out of water both culturally and just environmentally.
We know that Avatar 2 will be spending a lot of time in the water, with James Cameron even developing underwater motion-capture for the project. A few of the new Na’vi we’ll be meeting in the sequel include Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), the leader of the reef people clan of Metkayina, and Ronal (Kate Winslet), a free-diver of the Metkayina.
It’s been a long wait, but Jon Landau says it’s because each of the four Avatar sequels is a part of one big connected story. “The scripts are the blueprint from which we work,” Landau said. “So a large portion of our time was writing… with the challenge that each of those four scripts had to individually resolve itself in a story that concludes with a big emotional resolution – but when you look at them as a whole, the connected story arc of all four movies creates an even larger epic saga.” It remains to be seen if we’ll see another delay, but as it stands now, Avatar 2 will hit theaters on December 16, 2022, followed by Avatar 3 on December 20, 2023, Avatar 4 on December 18, 2026, and Avatar 5 on December 22, 2028.