The first of four planned sequels to the 2009 film Avatar is Avatar 2. It is set to be released in December 2022. The film has been in the works since 2010, and the preproduction phase was completed in 2017. Principal photography will be completed by 2020. The film is now in postproduction after filming wrapped in September 2020.
James Cameron has previously stated that the film will most likely not be titled “Avatar 2,” because, by the end of the first film, Jake is no longer an avatar, but rather a Na’vi. Although no official title has been announced, an “Avatar” logo was featured in an April 2016 press release, as shown here. In addition, according to a November 2018 BBC article, the title would be Avatar: The Way of Water.
James Cameron has shifted the focus for Avatar 2 from the forests of Pandora to the oceans, which may mean that he will lose the major theme of deforestation from the first film. Avatar 2 and its three sequels have been repeatedly postponed. James Cameron is once again pioneering new technology to bring his vision to life. As the oceanic setting expands the world of Avatar, Cameron must be careful not to prioritize his new cinematic technology over the core and themes of the original story.
Avatar, which was released in 2009, was a watershed moment in special effects and 3D filmmaking. It went on to become the world’s highest-grossing film of all time, a title it reclaimed after Avengers: Endgame briefly stole it. The plot of Avatar 2 is being kept under wraps, but it is known that it takes place 14 years after the events of the first film. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have settled down and begun a family, but a new threat forces them to flee the forest and into Pandora’s oceans for safety.
Check out this just-released photo of @JackTheChamp as Spider in the #AvatarSequels! Producer @jonlandau sat down with @EmpireMagazine to share new details — see the full article below for more. https://t.co/vajC6TfCmA
— Avatar (@officialavatar) December 20, 2021
Science fiction, at best, can be used as an allegory for real-world problems. James Cameron was inspired to create the world of Avatar by the destruction of rainforests, surface mining, pollution, and the displacement of native populations, among other environmental issues.
This provided an emotional foundation for Avatar that audiences can relate to. Some have found Avatar’s environmentalism to be overly simplistic, while others have used it as a starting point for further analysis and discussion.
In an interview with Weekly Entertainment, Cameron, however, appeared to be more focused and motivated on exploring Pandora’s Ocean and the filming tools to capture it, rather than the larger environmental themes of the first film. The film’s ocean was visually stunning, but the Earth was the central theme in the first film, and the extinction of the planet may be forgotten in Avatar 2.
James Cameron is an expert in deep-sea exploration and underwater photography, having done The Abyss and Titanic in his spare time. Avatar 2 fulfills this obsession, with James Cameron developing new underwater technology to film actors underwater. While the first film’s theme of deforestation had a relatively minor role in Avatar 2, oceanic habitat may take its place with regards to the natural environment threatened by anthropogenic problems.
The ocean is the world’s engine on planet Earth. There could be no life without it, and ocean conservation is a topic that Avatar 2 could delve into. Bringing this environmental theme to Pandora could be one of James Cameron’s intentions, though it appears to be secondary to his obsession with ocean exploration.
Regardless of the decor and theme for Avatar 2, James Cameron is a master storyteller. He directed Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, two of the best sequels of all time. He has proven time and again that he is not to be underestimated, and Avatar 2 should deliver another sequel that outperforms the original.
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