The trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water is finally online! Will the new movie be able to live up to its groundbreaking predecessor?
Fans have been waiting upwards of a decade for the sequel to James Cameron’s Avatar, the visionary film that saw humans and the blue-skinned aliens known as Na’vi clashing on their native moon of Pandora. The 2009 film is still the highest grossing movie of all time, having raked in upwards of $2.84 billion since it was first released.
Saying anticipation is high feels like a vast understatement. Fans have long felt like this sequel was never going to happen. But it’s official: Avatar: The Way of Water is coming to theaters this December.
To prove it, 20th Century (which is owned now by Disney) released the first teaser trailer for the movie at CinemaCon a couple of weeks back. Then they attached it to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Now, finally, it’s on the internet for all to enjoy:
Avatar: The Way of Water trailer promises new creatures and amazing vistas
This first look at Avatar 2 doesn’t tell us too much; it’s mostly a montage of breathtaking scenes played over a score clearly meant to pluck at the heartstrings. There’s only one line in it: Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) telling his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) that, “Wherever we go, this family is our fortress.”
In addition to plenty of underwater scenes, which were apparently part of the reason the film took so long to make, the trailer also introduces us to Jake and Neytiri’s family. Avatar: The Way of Water is fittingly set over a decade after the original film, and Jake and Neytiri have been busy. They have four children, sons Neteyam, Lo’ak and Spider, as well as daughter Tuktirey. Unlike the rest of the family, Spider is a human who was adopted by Jake shortly after the events of the first film. Given how much strife there has been between human and Na’vi, Spider’s human heritage is sure to be a sticking point.
We also get some looks at lots of new underwater creatures, which appear to be able to make the Tsaheylu bond with Na’vi just like their aerial and land-based counterparts. And of course, the winds of war are blowing as we see a new water-oriented tribe gathering for conflict and human mining operations seemingly resuming on Pandora.
With such a long wait for this film, it’s got a lot to live up to. But if anyone can pull it off, it’s James Cameron.
Avatar: The Way of Water is coming exclusively to theaters on December 16. The first Avatar film will be rereleasing in theaters ahead of it this September, so it’ll be even harder for anything else to topple it as the most successful film of all time.
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h/t Syfy Wire