Avatar: The Way of Water Trailer Released

05/09/2022 10:49 am EDT

Avatar: The Way of Water's first trailer is here. Released with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness this weekend, the first look at the upcoming sequel to Avatar is now online for all to enjoy.  Per 20th Century Studios, "Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water 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. Directed by James Cameron and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau, the film stars Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement, and Kate Winslet."

There's a lot riding on making a sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all time (which is soon returning to theaters). Star Zoe Saldana recently described the process as "nerve-wracking."

"It's exciting; nerve-wracking," she told Entertainment Weekly. "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."

Asked to compare her experience on Avatar with filming Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Saldana said, "They demand a different kind of sacrifice, but they stand very unique on their own subjective grounds,. 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."

Avatar: The Way of Water opens in theaters on December 16th. Avatar returns to theaters on September 23rd. Another Avatar sequel has already been filmed, with two more planned should the franchise prove a continuing success for Disney.

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