What’s happened since the last Avatar movie was released? We’ve witnessed three presidential elections, two royal weddings, and seven Olympic Games. The Cubs broke their centuries-long curse. Britain exited the European Union. The iPad, Uber, and Instagram were invented. The Ottoman Empire fell. (Kidding.) Back in 2009, we were listening to “Empire State of Mind” while we stressed about the Swine Flu—a simpler time.
This is all to say: the first trailer for the Avatar sequel has finally dropped, and it’s been years—decades—in the making. So much time has passed, and yet, we’re somehow supposed to recall what happened in James Cameron’s first film about cerulean people living in a fantastical world called Pandora?
Yes. The Na'vi are back, baby, whether you like it or not.
We’ve still got over half a year to wait for Avatar: The Way of Water to actually hit theaters, but for now, Cameron has released the very first footage of the highly-anticipated sequel. Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) return, but they’re not alone. The couple is joined by a flock of children, including one human-looking one wearing a mask.
“I know one thing,” Jake says in the clip. “Wherever we go, this family is our fortress.”
The second installment will follow the timeline of the release pattern, meaning The Way of Water will take place a decade after the events of the first film—hence those new kids. There’s not a lot of plot information dispelled in the trailer, but from the looks of it, resource-hungry invaders are on the hunt to destroy Pandora all over again. Maybe it’s all that clean, luxurious-looking water.
While this is the first time The Way of Water trailer has been released to the public, anyone who visited the movie theater to see Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness this weekend got an exclusive first look at the clip. Fans that got to see it in early previews seemed to embrace the trailer with loving arms—could Avatar 2 be on track to dethrone its predecessor as the highest grossing film worldwide?
Maybe. And maybe this time, it’ll win Best Picture, too. Avatar: The Way of Water releases in theaters on December 16, with three more sequels debuting over the course of the next decade.
