The trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water is bright, vivid and textured

Last night, I got to see an advance screening of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. I felt very special, a fact I will keep bragging about until it becomes insufferable, which has probably already happened. Ahead of the movie, we also got to watch the trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel to 2009’s historic smash hit Avatar, which remains the highest-grossing movie of all time.

Will the sequel top it? It’s hard to say, but the trailer hits all the buttons the original did, with some new twists. Obviously, it’s beautiful; director James Cameron knew what he was doing on Terminator 2, he knew what he was doing on Aliens, he knew what he was doing on Titanic, and he knows what he’s doing here. This guy knows spectacle. The lush forests, scenic vistas and deep blue oceans of Pandora look as splendid as ever, and of course, they will pop off the screen in 3D. The oceans in particular get a workout. That’s another Cameron hallmark: the guy loves water.

I was also intrigued by some of the environmental details that hint at the story. I can’t give away too much, but it looks like the cultures of the Na’vi aliens and the space marines here to mine their home moon of Pandora for resources will blend at the edges a bit. At the center of the tale are Jake (Sam Worthington), a human who now permanently inhabits the body of a Na’vi, and his family, including his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and their two children; one Na’vi and one human.

Zoe Saldaña previews Avatar 2: The Way of Water

Saldaña talked a bit about the trailer premiere to Entertainment Weekly at CinemaCon. “It’s exciting; nerve-wracking,” she said. “Humbling as well, you know — the wait is finally over. And we get to share something that we love so much with so many people that we know love it, too.”

Saldaña has made something of a specialty out of playing alien women with colorful skin tones: blue for Neytiri and green for Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy. But that’s where the similarities  between the characters end. “They demand a different kind of sacrifice, but they stand very unique on their own subjective grounds,” she explained. “Gamora is a much more traditional approach where you wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning and you go through the whole prosthetic process. And then kind of once you see yourself and you feel Gamora on you, obviously, you transform, you know?”

"And when it comes to Neytiri, it’s more of a practice. It’s months of training, not just rehearsing with your director, but training with movement coaches, and traveling to the jungle and getting to feel what it’s like to make your own food with all the elements that are around you. And once you use all of that, you do bring it into what we call the volume, which is the set, when you shoot under performance-capture."

We can’t wait to see the results of her hard work!

Avatar: The Way of Water will be out on December 16, with the original movie rereleased in September. You can watch the trailer for the new movie alongside Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which opens this weekend.

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