All You Need to Know About Avatar: The Way of Water

Avatar: The Way of Water — out Friday in theatres — marks the movie event of a generation, coming off the heels of a wildly successful prequel. Thirteen years since the first film landed, returning director James Cameron takes on the reigns, leading us back to the majestic vistas of Pandora, as a new threat emerges in the form of human-piloted mechas. The much-delayed film sees Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) playing parents to five kids, 15 years in the future, adding a sense of responsibility outside their survival. If you recall the original 2009 Avatar, both characters were quite self-centred, putting themselves at high risks since they had no liabilities.

Expect to see awe-inspiring CGI in Avatar: The Way of Water, which improves upon its Oscar-winning predecessor, with Cameron even commending his team at WETA Digital, and claiming that the facial motion capture beats the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thanos. “WETA FX, as it’s now known is the best, right? I mean, ILM [Industrial Light & Magic] does great work, but when it comes to the kind of, emotive facial stuff that we’re doing… I mean, Thanos? Come on, give me a break,” he told ComicBook.com. “It’s not even close. It’s what WETA did.” That said, the celebrated director also praised Avengers: Endgame’s theatrical performance as evidence that audiences were still willing to visit movie theatres.

Prepare for a long runtime as well, which clocks in at 3 hours and 10 minutes, marking his second-longest film since 1997’s Titanic. Speaking to Total Film magazine, Cameron suggested that Avatar: The Way of Water has a larger emphasis on its characters, relationships, and emotions, which weren’t serviced in the original. “Here’s the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it’s okay to get up and go pee,” he told Empire in an earlier interview, bringing up the hypocrisy of people binge-watching eight-hour-long shows without whining about how large of a time investment it is.

Avatar: The Way of Water to Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the Biggest Movies in December

Jake Sully and his family in a still from Avatar: The Way of Water
Photo Credit: 20th Century Studios

With that, here’s everything you need to know about Avatar: The Way of Water:

Avatar: The Way of Water release date

Avatar: The Way of Water hits theatres Friday, December 16 worldwide. In India, the much-awaited sequel will be screened in English, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu.

Avatar: The Way of Water budget

While Cameron has remained tight-lipped on the exact figures, reports suggest that Avatar 2’s production budget is one of the costliest in Hollywood, ranging anywhere between $350 million (about Rs. 2,900 crore) to $400 million (about Rs. 3,300 crore).

Speaking to GQ Magazine, the filmmaker expressed his concerns about wanting to break even on the sequel, claiming it was “very f–king” expensive to make, and that it represented the “worst business case in movie history.” For Avatar: The Way of Water to be deemed profitable, he said, “you have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history. That’s your threshold. That’s your break even.” Currently, those positions are held by his own romance film Titanic and J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens, both collecting over $2 billion (roughly Rs. 16,500 crore) apiece.

The original Avatar leads the pack with $2.9 billion (about Rs. 24,000 crore), and was also subject to a re-release, earlier this year, to prime audiences for The Way of Water.

James Cameron Prepared to End Franchise With Trilogy if Avatar 2 Underperforms

The Sully family must forge bonds with sentient creatures
Photo Credit: 20th Century Studios

Avatar: The Way of Water cast

Sam Worthington returns to play Jake Sully, who after surrendering his human body in the first film, has fully settled in Pandora as a towering blue Na’vi native. He now serves as part lead of the Omaticaya clan, rebuilding his home, and is tasked with protecting his family for when the “sky people” return to harvest resources from the moon planet. Turns out Cameron had written a full-blown script of Avatar 1.5, which gave insight into Jake’s life during those 15 years. “It was more about what they went through as a couple because their relationship evolved at the end of the first one, but this was about literally them,” he told Collider. “Having the kids and consummating and stuff like that, and the war. It gave us a good jumping-off point of where they were at.”

Similarly, Zoe Saldaña reprises her role as Neytiri, Jake’s mate, future Tsahìk of the clan, and mother to five children — two adopted. Having chosen to spend her life with an outsider has caused the native to question her ancestry as a Na’vi, in addition to coping with the looming fear of letting the kids go live their lives, out in the wild. “By choosing this man of another species, having a family with him, but also dealing just with the violation that’s happening on her planet. I think she’s just, she hasn’t found any resolution about it and that’s her journey,” Saldaña said in an interview.

Sigourney Weaver, who originally appeared as Dr. Grace Augustine in the first film — and died — voices Kiri, Jake, and Neytiri’s adopted daughter in Avatar: The Way of Water. An earlier trailer for the film suggested that the blue alien was able to hear a “mighty heartbeat,” which could’ve presumably been a sea creature or hinted at some odd connection with Grace. In a recent interview with Screenrant, Weaver outright confirmed both theories, claiming that her interspecies communication skills are a mystery. “Kiri also has a connection with Grace Augustine, who was the scientist in the first one, that I played. Kiri’s different, though, from the other kids and doesn’t really know how she feels about that,” she said. “Sometimes it’s great because she has such a connection with creatures, underwater and on land, and sometimes this makes her very uncomfortable.”

Sigourney Weaver plays Kiri (L) and Dr. Grace Augustine (R)
Photo Credit: 20th Century Studios

Avatar: The Way of Water notes a reunion between director Cameron and new addition Kate Winslet since 1997’s Titanic. Here, she plays Ronal, a free diver of the Metkayina clan, who is resistant to taking in outsiders, to keep her little tribe safe. “I think what I felt was very important to convey is the sense that Ronal is the matriarch. She is the leader of her clan, and I think she will stop at nothing to protect that and to protect what they have created,” Winslet said in an interview. While filming an underwater scene, the actress had to hold her breath for over seven minutes.

Cliff Curtis (Doctor Sleep) portrays the Metkayina leader Tonowari, who allows Jake’s family to train with his shoreline tribe, for when the time for war comes. He also happens to be Ronal’s husband, though, unlike the traditional, real-world sense, feminine and masculine roles are balanced on Pandora. “The female takes on the shamanistic and spiritual aspects of the well-being of the people, and the male figures, like my character, take on the logistics and practical aspects. So they have equal roles and tribal leadership responsibilities,” Curtis told The Hollywood Reporter.

Another character to return from the dead in Avatar 2 is Stephen Lang’s Colonel Miles Quaritch, albeit in a new non-human form. Following his death in the first film via a pair of giant arrows, the RDA (Resources Development Administration) resurrected him as a Recombinant — which is essentially an avatar embedded with human memories. “[He] was always a character who moved in straight lines and at right angles,” Lang tells Empire. “But now he is as lithe as they come. He can move with the same kind of cunning and feral quality that any of the Na’vi can.”

Kate Winslet and Cliff Curtis as Ronal and Tonowari in Avatar 2
Photo Credit: 20th Century Studios

As stated before, Avatar 2 is more story-heavy, centring on character relationships — some of which can be romantic. This time, it’s between Jake’s second-oldest son Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Bailey Bass’ Tsireya, both hailing from different tribes. While some locals took to bullying the outcast family, Tsireya accepted her task and began teaching the Sullys the way of water, which involves forming a special connection with the sea creatures. As the revered, young free diver and daughter of sea-faring Metkayina leaders Ronal and Tonowari, Tsireya secretively explores a relationship with Lo’ak.

Then there’s Jamie Flatters as Neteyam, Jake and Neytiri’s oldest biological child, who is the next in line to lead the Omaticaya clan. Eight-year-old Tuktirey (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) is the youngest of the bunch and harbours a close relationship with her older adoptive sister, Kiri. And finally, Jack Champion plays the adoptive human brother Miles “Spider” Socorro, who was born on Hell’s Gate, the base for all colonial activities on Pandora. The character was introduced in the follow-up, canon comic book, Avatar: The High Ground, which is set 14 years after the 2009 film.

Additionally, Brendan Cowell (Game of Thrones) plays the head of marine hunting Captain Mick Scoresby, popular voice actor Jemaine Clement as a marine biologist Dr. Ian Garvin, and returning star Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel.

Jack Champion as Miles “Spider” Socorro in Avatar: The Way of Water
Photo Credit: 20th Century Studios

Avatar: The Way of Water advance booking

Advance bookings for Avatar 2 have been up since late November, with ticket sales live across BookMyShow and Paytm. With merely three days left to go until global release, reports suggest that the CGI-driven sequel has sold over 3.5 lakh tickets for day one, at the time of writing.

Previously, 20th Century Studios also claimed that Avatar: The Way of Water will witness 24 hours of shows running at select theatres in the country, with first showings starting at 12 am onwards.

Avatar: The Way of Water synopsis

Here’s the official synopsis for Avatar: The Way of Water from 20th Century Studios:

Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, “Avatar: The Way of Water” begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.

Directed by James Cameron and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau, the film stars Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement, and Kate Winslet.

Avatar: The Way of Water trailer

Back in May, 20th Century Studios dropped the first teaser trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water, which offered a tonal sense of what to expect from the film, featuring glimpses of the exotic land of Pandora, and the first look at Miles “Spider” Socorro, the adoptive human child, who is seen training in the Na’vi ways — armed with a bow and arrows. It also featured a brief shot of the resurrected Colonel Miles Quaritch, stealthily roaming the forest, hoping to exact revenge on Sully’s family. The footage also managed to clock in 148.6 million views within the first 20 hours.

Then, early last month, Disney released a full-length trailer for Avatar 2, which focused on a mysterious “mighty” heartbeat that only Kiri could hear. The serenity is soon ruined when the “sky people” aka humans return to harvest resources from the planet, piloting comical mecha-robots and setting the place ablaze. But as Jake’s family reaches out to the coastal Metkayina clan for help, they are shunned away.

The final trailer, released later that month, expands upon that arc, as tribe leaders Ronal and Tonowari accept their pleas, teaching the vulnerable family, ways to connect with the sentient sea creatures, such as the whale-like tulkuns and the airborne Skimwings. At one point, you can see our heroes leading an attack on enemy air crafts, using primitive weapons such as long spears and arrows, aiming any for weak spots.

Avatar: The Way of Water review

First reviews for Avatar: The Way of Water are expected soon, given the Los Angeles, US premiere took place on Monday.

The Gadgets360 review for Avatar: The Way of Water will be live Wednesday, at 12 pm IST, when the embargo lifts.

Avatar: The Way of Water poster

Here’s the official poster for Avatar: The Way of Water from 20th Century Studios:

Avatar: The Way of Water poster
Photo Credit: 20th Century Studios