Avatar is still the highest-grossing movie of all time (through a back-and-forth with Avengers: Endgame) 13 years after its initial release. The film, helmed by James Cameron, brought audiences into the brand new, original world of Pandora. The beautiful moon features a vast array of creatures, vegetation, and various tribes. The Na’vi, or the people of Pandora, are separated into at least 15 clans, each with its own culture and different environment. Although we caught glimpses of the extended world outside the main characters in Avatar, we left Pandora mostly unexplored by the time the credits rolled.
Producer Jon Landau assured audiences that won’t be the case with the upcoming sequels, as he tells Variety that each film will focus on different cultures and biomes on the giant moon. “With each sequel, we’re going to introduce audiences to new cultures and new biomes,” he explains. “We don’t leave behind the cultures that we’ve met.” It appears as though the cast of the Avatar films will continue to grow as Cameron expands the world to the various cultures that inhabit it while keeping the focus on our main characters.
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Landau’s comments come from a showcase at the Busan International Film Festival, where the crew from Avatar: The Way of Water discussed the groundbreaking technology in the upcoming sequel. If the movie is anything like the film before it, the visuals will be spectacular and unlike anything audiences have seen before. The Way of Water is set for release later this year, when its US theatrical rollout begins on Dec. 16.
Avatar: The Way of Water Pushed For Inclusivity
20th Century Studios
Avatar certainly had a deeper message surrounding climate change, our current society, and how people treat outsiders. The Way of Water and the subsequent sequels will do the same while they push for inclusivity within and outside the film. Jon Landau tells Variety, “As filmmakers, we have a responsibility to use our art form to challenge people to see things differently,” he says. “And science fiction allows us the opportunity to be a metaphor for the world in which we live without preaching about it. Because if you preach, you only reach those who are already converted.”
The report mentions the protagonists of the next movie, refugees seeking safe harbor with people who don’t look like them and live very differently from them. As Landau mentions, The Way of Water will attempt to spread a message without completely pushing its views on the audience. Fans only need to wait a few more months until the sequel, 13 years in the making, arrives in theaters this December.
