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On Monday, the first teaser for James Cameron’s long-awaitedAvatarsequel,Avatar: The Way of Water, debuted to the massesafter premiering at CinemaConlast month and playing in front ofDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessin theaters this weekend.
The minute-and-a-half glimpse showcases the action-packed spectacle, including the iconic floating mountains and a new frontier for the movie franchise: the underwater world.
“I know one thing: Wherever we go, this family is our fortress,” Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully tells Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri at the end of the teaser.
The firstAvatarhit theaters in December 2009, revolutionizing 3D moviegoing with its cutting-edge advancements in technology. Along with Worthington and Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore and CCH Pounder also return for this new installment. Cameron’sTitaniccohort Kate Winslet joins the cast along with Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco and Jemaine Clement.
Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
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An official logline for the movie explains that this film takes place more than 10 years later and “begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.”
Producer Jon LandautoldEntertainment Weeklyin December that “ultimately, the sequels are a story about family, and the lengths parents will go through to keep that family together and keep them safe. I always say that Jim’s movies have universal themes — and really, there’s no more universal theme than family.”
“What we are doing now, from a story standpoint and a world standpoint, is on a much larger scale. That’s both exciting and challenging,” added Landau at the time. “We are putting much more detail, first and foremost, into the performances of the cast, but we’re putting much more detail and diversity into the world that we are creating.”
The 2009 original broke box office records upon its release and also earned nine Oscar nominations — including for Best Picture — with three total wins. Cameron toldEWhe worries whether the subsequentinstallments can matchAvatar’s success.
“The big issue is: Are we going to make any damn money? Big, expensive films have got to make a lot of money,” said Cameron. “We’re in a new world post-COVID, post-streaming. Maybe those [box office] numbers will never be seen again. Who knows? It’s all a big roll of the dice.”
source: people.com
