Dive into Pandora’s oceans with the trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water

After more than a decade of waiting, the long-awaited sequel to James Cameron’s Avatar is almost here. 20th Century has just released a new trailer for the film which gives us our best look yet at Avatar: The Way of Water, including gorgeous underwater sequences, oceanic battles, and heartfelt family moments. It also includes our first look at how Sigourney Weaver will feature in the movie after her character Doctor Grace Augustine died in the first Avatar. Pack your bags, we’re going back to Pandora!

Avatar: The Way of Water promises to be a wondrous journey into an alien world

One of the best things about the first Avatar was its immersive visual experience. Even today, more than a decade after its release, few movies have ever come close to the level of visual fidelity achieved by Avatar in 2008.

And if anyone can top that, it’s Cameron himself. The latest trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water shows off more of the movie’s underwater scenes, which were such a challenge to film that Cameron’s team had to invent new technology to do it. Clearly it was worth it; I’ll just be here watching that scene of Jake Sully’s Na’vi family freediving on repeat for the next month until the movie releases.

The trailer also hints at a few of the film’s major conflicts. The first revolves around humans, who will be returning to Pandora. It sounds like Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) will be trying to convince an ocean-based tribe of Na’vi to join in the fight against the humans, a proposal they will not be receptive to.

We also hear Sigourney Weaver’s voice come out of a teenage Na’vi, which will absolutely take a minute to get used to. Reports circulated earlier this year that Weaver will be playing a different character in Avatar: The Way of Water, and up until now all we’ve known is that it would be a younger Na’vi named Kiri who is the adoptive daughter of Jake and Neytiri. This trailer reveals that there are some secrets in Kiri’s life.

The first Avatar dealt with the idea that all living organisms on Pandora are connected through a vast energetic network. We did get hints that resurrection (in the spiritual sense) could be a part of that. Weaver’s character tells Jake that she hears “her heartbeat.” Could she be talking about Doctor Grace Augustine?

Avatar: The Way of Water will reportedly be over three hours long

Whatever lies in store, it’s going to be a long, epic journey. Deadline reports that Avatar: The Way of Water will be over three hours long. The news broke late last week, when theater websites began posting information about the film.

That said, Deadline’s sources say that the final runtime for the movie isn’t set in stone yet. So we don’t know for sure just how long it’ll be, although it’s basically guaranteed to be longer than the first Avatar, which clocked in at two hours and 42 minutes.

Avatar: The Way of Water splashes into theaters internationally starting on December 14. It’ll be out in the U.S. of December 16.

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