Director James Cameron has been discussing a sequel to Avatar ever since the original film opened in 2009 and became the highest-grossing movie of all time (Avengers: Endgame took the title in 2019).

The powerful sci-fi movie is set on a faraway moon called Pandora and follows human Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as he befriends the natives (called the Na’vi) by using a genetically engineered Na’vi body.

Now, the sequel picks up over a decade later and will focus on Sully, his lover Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their new family.

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Many of the original castmates are returning

Along with Worthington and Saldaña returning for the sequel, we’ll also see Giovanni Ribisi, who was the lead corporate administrator of the human-mining project on Pandora in the first movie.

Two actors whose characters died in the first movie will also be returning. Sigourney Weaver, who played Dr. Grace Augustine, is coming back, but not playing the same character.

Stephen Lang, who played the villain Colonel Miles Quaritch, is also getting a second chance.

But there are also newcomers

Winslet is set to play a free diver named Ronal, one of the Na’vi who inhabits the waters of Pandora called Metkayina.

Cliff Curtis (Blow, Training Day, Whale Rider) will play Tonowari, the leader of the Metkayina.

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And Vin Diesel said in a 2019 Instagram post that he will also be joining the cast. However, there are no details yet on who he will play.

Water will be a major theme of the sequel

As the title suggests, we’re going to see more of what goes on below the surface of Pandora in the sequel.

To pull off these scenes, a massive 900,000-gallon performance-capture tank was built in New Zealand for the sequels.

Back in 2020, Winslet, told The Hollywood Reporter that she had to hold her breath for more than seven minutes to do the underwater scenes.

Like the first movie, the technology used to make Avatar: The Way of Water is groundbreaking

Along with filming underwater, Cameron and the special effects team at Weta Digital developed a motion-capture underwater system to capture the performances. The equipment has never been used before this movie and took a year and a half to develop.

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And, like the first movie, Cameron plans the push the boundaries of 3D to present “the most immersive 3D available”, he said at 2022 CinemaCon via a video message.

“We’re pushing those limits even further, with 3D with high dynamic range, with high frame rate, higher resolution, and a much greater reality in our visual effects,” he said.

All the sequels will be stand-alone films

Also at 2022 CinemaCon, Avatar franchise producer Jon Landau gave some insight into how the sequels will be told, noting that they will all be stand-alone stories – meaning each sequel will have a finality to them.

However, the family that Sully and Neytiri have formed will be a common thread throughout them all.

The first teaser trailer came out in May

While it was initially shown in 3D in cinemas in the US before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness during the Marvel movie’s opening weekend in May, it has since been released online. But regardless of what format you see it in, the visuals are breathtaking.

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Avatar: The Way of Water hits cinemas on December 16

Here are the dates for the third, fourth and fifth instalments in the franchise:

• Avatar 3 – December 20, 2024

• Avatar 4 – December 18, 2026

• Avatar 5 – December 22, 2028