Spoiler Warning: Avatar: The Way of Water

Avatar 3 is already 95% done, says Jon Landau, the movie’s leading producer. Avatar: The Way of Water took James Cameron more than a decade to put together, but now the wheels are turning, and it looks like we’re going to have a number of sequels faster than you can say Toruk Makto. According to sources, Cameron has been filming this entire time and has amassed a great deal of footage capable of making all of Avatar 3 and the start of Avatar 4 as well. They’ve also already written the script Avatar 5. With so many sequels quickly on the way, and the first one already in theaters, what can we expect in Avatar 3?

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Avatar: The Way of Water had an expansive plot that did more to open the world of Avatar than it did to conclude any plot lines. More questions were raised than were answered. We met Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri’s (Zoe Saldaña) family, and we were introduced to an entirely different tribe of Na’vi. The forest tribe got a new leader, and Jake’s adoptive daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) discovered she has a powerful connection to Eywa. The humans also have an entire city on Pandora and are hunting a strange liquid from the tulkun which stops human aging. The Way of Water gave us a lot of loose ends, and a lot of speculating is left to do about Avatar 3.

James Cameron and Making Avatar

     AMC

James Cameron is not a director to shy away from large-scale productions, and Avatar: The Way of Water is no exception. When asked the most common question about his sequel (why did it take so long?) he typically responds by saying that the technology for Avatar 2 wasn’t there in 2009. There have been incredible advances in cinematography and CGI technology invented specifically for The Way of Water. Some you may have seen in other films even before this one came out. But now that Cameron feels satisfied with this level of technology, he has been filming like a madman. There are even rumors that the first cut of Avatar 3 is 9 hours long.

The movie is certainly going to be big. Cameron often demands patience from his viewers, asking them to plan their bathroom breaks instead of giving them a shorter film. It’s understandable, considering the scope of the story he’s trying to tell. The Way of Water clocked in at three hours and 12 minutes, and it was probably difficult to fit even in that time. James Cameron is a filmmaker that refuses to accept shortcuts or excuses and if he could, would likely change the whole film industry in order to make his movie the way he wanted.

The Plot of Avatar 3

     20th Century Studios

There’s a lot we can tell about Avatar 3 just from watching The Way of Water. This film left so many loose ends, it’s not surprising Cameron has three more planned. According to producer Jon Landau, they’ve already finished the screenplays for Avatars 3, 4, and 5, and that the cast has read all of them. This was, of course, informing their work on the current Avatar films, and knowing where their characters are going is a big help to everyone involved.

The Way of Water set up a bunch of what’s coming. The Metkayina Clan, the ocean Na’vi, seems to be the tribe from which Cameron will tell most of his story for the short term. The Sully family have now become members of the water people and when Avatar 3 starts, we can probably expect to see them still living there. The humans will likely expand their industrial city and, despite the efforts of the Na’vi, will continue to destroy the land. General Ardmore did mention that Earth was dying, so there will only be more of the sky people coming in the future.

But, with the growing threat comes a greater hope. Kiri will discover more about her powers. Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) will build a stronger relationship with his outcast tulkun. A great war may even be fought over the tulkun, and their valuable material that stops the aging process in humans. Jon Landau assures us one thing in an interview with Polygon.

There will be epic CGI landscapes and incredible futuristic technology, but Avatar is, after all, a family story. And in the coming films, that is the story we will love the most.

“It’s a family story. But it’s not just told from the parents’ perspective. It’s also told from the kids’ perspective — kids who are struggling to find their place in life. One of them feels like an outcast. Another one is questioning what her origins are, where she even comes from. These are things people struggle with today — it makes it relatable. It’s the Sully kids that we go on our first swim experience with, at the reef. We see it through their eyes. And now, as we graduate through the movies, we’re gonna grow up with them as we go on in the saga.”