Avatar: The Manner of Water was a notoriously delayed mission. Author-director James Cameron first introduced the sequel to his 2009 hit Avatar in 2010, with a objective of releasing it in 2014 and following up with a 3rd Avatar film in 2015. However each time the discharge date received shut, Cameron would announce a brand new delay, suspending the releases by one other yr — or a number of. And all that release-calendar leaping was earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic shut down manufacturing and made lengthy film delays and schedule shuffles commonplace.
The explanations cited for the delays have typically been obscure. Cameron has talked in regards to the “logistical and technical parts” concerned in making a number of motion pictures again to again, notably after the announcement that two extra sequels would comply with Avatar 3, for a complete of 5 motion pictures. And the complexities of taking pictures Avatar: The Manner of Water, as seen in early behind-the-scenes footage, counsel uncommon ranges of manufacturing problem on the movie.
However in a latest interview with Polygon, Avatar and Avatar: The Manner of Water producer Jon Landau says that the manufacturing and launch delays weren’t primarily pushed by the stakes of bringing aquatic Na’vi and their detailed whale buddies to life.
“We didn’t have to carry right here for expertise,” he mentioned. “I feel the primary Avatar proved to us that we may very well be the impetus to push expertise to the place we would have liked to go.”
As a substitute, he says, the delays got here as a result of the filmmaking staff was decided to get the scripts for all 4 deliberate Avatar sequels written and finalized earlier than taking pictures on Avatar 2 even began.
“We felt that this mission was about getting the story proper,” he mentioned. “You’ll by no means construct a home till you had the blueprint to construct from. The scripts are that blueprint. So we wished to attend to all 4 of these have been there.”
That call might have been associated to the casting of the kid actors who function main protagonists in Avatar: The Manner of Water. The film continues the story of house Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who takes on the avatar physique of a Na’vi, a 10-foot felinoid native of the planet Pandora, and ultimately takes a neighborhood Na’vi girl, Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) as a mate. However in The Manner of Water, the main focus partly shifts to their organic youngsters, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss); their adopted teenage daughter, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver); and the children’ younger human pal, Spider (Jack Champion).
Picture: twentieth Century Studios
It appears doubtless that Avatar 3 — which was shot back-to-back with The Manner of Water — will proceed the story threads left open on the finish of Avatar 2, and that Avatar 4 will initially proceed the children’ story, then bounce ahead in time to their maturity. Cameron has confirmed that the “first act” of Avatar 4 has already been shot, regardless that there’s no assure that the story will proceed previous the third film. Landau teased the explanations:
“There have been logistic causes, it turned out, why we would have liked to shoot not simply film two and film three, however the first act of half 4 now. We couldn’t wait to do it later,” he mentioned. “So we wished to get that each one in place. After which we felt we may very well be the impetus once more to push expertise to inform these tales.”
Landau confirms that “the Sully children” would be the throughline for the Avatar movies, and the means for introducing new generations to new settings in Pandora, just like the coastal space the place a lot of The Manner of Water takes place.
“They’re in some ways our entry into this new world of Pandora that we go to,” he mentioned. “It’s a household story. But it surely’s not simply instructed from the mother and father’ perspective. It’s additionally instructed from the children’ perspective — children who’re struggling to search out their place in life. Certainly one of them seems like an outcast. One other one is questioning what her origins are, the place she even comes from. These are issues folks battle with at the moment — it makes it relatable. It’s the Sully children that we go on our first swim expertise with, on the reef. We see it by way of their eyes. And now, as we graduate by way of the flicks, we’re gonna develop up with them as we go on within the saga.”
Avatar: The Manner of Water is in theaters now. The third film is scheduled for launch in December 2024, with motion pictures 4 and 5 deliberate for 2026 and 2028, respectively.
