James Cameron has spent the better part of 30 years proving his doubters wrong at every turn, and that applies more than ever to upcoming sequel Avatar: The Way of Water.
The opening installment may have briefly lost its crown as the highest-grossing movie in history to Avengers: Endgame, but a Chinese re-release saw the first visit to Pandora reclaim the title of cinema’s biggest ever hit. That puts a ton of pressure on The Way of Water to not just succeed but exceed expectations, although we’d be foolish to write Cameron off.
Fans have been waiting 13 years for Avatar 2 to arrive, and with the film’s release a little over three months away, the franchise’s new stewards at Disney have made a serious splash at D23 by revealing brand new details from the hotly-anticipated sci-fi spectacular.
One of the biggest talking points is the revelation that Sigourney Weaver will play a teenager, and not just any youth either, but one of Jake Sully’s kids. Once again teaming up with her Aliens director, the actress admitted that “only Jim is crazy enough to have written this character for me!”.
On top of that, Cameron revealed that shooting on Avatar 4 is already underway, but none of the scenes shown to those in attendance look as though they’ll be made available online, which has been a frustratingly recurring theme of the day.
Cameron has effectively staked his entire reputation (and most likely the remainder of his filmmaking career) on the Avatar saga, and he’ll be keenly aware that there’s a huge number of people expecting him to fall short.
Of course, failure isn’t exactly something the game-changing Academy Award winner is used to, so don’t be shocked if The Way of Water decimates the competition and rules the box office for weeks (if not months) come December 16.
