AVATAR 2 is Described as a Saga and It Won't Be Hard to "Convince People To Come Back"
It’s been 13 years since James Cameron’s Avatar was released in theaters, which became one of the big box office successes of all time. I’ve been wondering if Cameron will be able to replicate that kind of success with the sequels that he is currently developing.
The first sequel to Avatar is set to hit theaters later this year and 20th Century Studios president Steve Asbell promises that it will be a "compelling" saga. In an interview with THR, Asbell described the franchise and saga and says that it won’t be hard to convince people to come back:
"This is not just a sequel, it’s a saga. And it’s a family saga. It will be compelling on its own, but it will also be extremely compelling to return to those characters and to see how they’ve evolved. It’s less about Avatar being a really big movie and more about how Avatar was a really important cultural moment for audiences. I don’t think it will be hard to convince people to come back."
When asked if Avatar 2 will stick to its 2022 release date, Asbell responded without hesitation, saying, "Yes. It will it’s going to blow people away. You’re not ready for what Jim [Cameron] is doing."
I hope he’s right! I would love to be blown away by a James Cameron movie again! Producer Jon Landau previously talked about the upcoming sequel and what we can expect from it, teasing:
“This is the story of the Sully family and what one does to keep their family together. Jake and Neytiri have a family in this movie, they are forced to leave their home, they go out and explore the different regions of Pandora, including spending quite a bit of time on the water, around the water, in the water.”
Avatar 2 is set several years after Avatar. “At the center of each of our four movies will be the Sully family. Each sequel will play as a standalone movie. Each movie’s story will come to its own conclusion… However, when looked at as a whole, the journey across all four movies will create an even larger connected epic saga for audiences around the world.”
When talking about the setting for the upcoming sequels, the producer said:
“As we’ve moved on with the sequels to Avatar we made a very conscious decision to stage the whole four sequels on Pandora. We don’t need to go to another world if we want water, we’re going to go to the oceans of Pandora.
”It’s a continuation of the same characters, but what happen when warriors that are willing to go on suicide charges, and leap off cliffs on to the back of big orange toruks, what happens when they grow up and have their own kids? It becomes a very different story. Now the kids are the risk-takers and the change-makers. So, it’s interesting, but it makes sense to me. Everybody’s either a parent, or they had parents at the very least, and if you look at the big successful franchises now, they’re pretty much uninterested in that.”
It was also revealed that there are different clans of Na’vi all over Pandora:
“We’re going to go to totally different environments, we’re going to meet different cultures. Just like our planet is as diverse culturally as we are environmentally. We want to introduce people to different cultures. In the first movie, we only met the Omaticaya clan, and they are the clan here allowing us to come to the Valley of Mo’ara. But as we venture out we’re going to different environments and different clans
Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 have already finished shooting and they are both in the post-production process. Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 are currently set for 2026 and 2028. It’s explained that these films are being made on a much bigger scale and they are putting much more detail into the performances of the actors, bringing more diversity to the world they have created and are building.
The Avatar sequels also star Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, Stephen Lang, and Matt Gerald. New cast members include Michelle Yeoh, Vin Diesel, Jemaine Clement, and Oona Chaplin. Avatar 2 will be released in theaters on December 16th, 2022.