James Cameron has been on a bit of a high after releasing the highly anticipated sequel to 2009’s Avatar, with it crushing it at the box office. Avatar: The Way of Water has been putting numbers on the board just like its predecessor, and it shows that the director knows how to make a hit. The film has been received fairly well with critics and fans alike, with the film being Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and getting an A CinemaScore. Cameron will release the third film in the franchise next year and it’s set to reveal a bunch of new characters like the Na’vi Fire Nation. Game of Thrones star Oona Chaplin previously joined the sequel in an undisclosed role and had yet to be confirmed. But now producer Jon Landau has confirmed that the actress has been cast in Avatar 3 and will play Varang, who will be the leader of the Na’vi fire nation tribe. In a new interview with Empire Magazine (via Screen Rant), Landau also revealed that the fire / Ash tribe would also be more antagonistic than the tribes we’ve met in previous films.
“There are good humans, and there are bad humans – the same thing on the Navi side – but oftentimes, people don’t see themselves as bad,” Landau too the magazine. “What is the root cause of how they evolve into what we perceive as bad? Maybe there are other factors there that we’re not aware of.”
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James Cameron Shot Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar 3 Back to Back
Cameron has been developing sequels to his record-breaking film for over a decade. The studio has announced four sequels to Avatar, with two already filmed, and the other two are waiting to see how the first does at the box office. The director shot both sequels back to back due to how the scenes they needed to film for both. About a year ago, Cameron confirmed to Variety why he shot the films this way.
“We mixed the schedules for 2 and 3 together, based on the types of scenes and the environments,” Cameron revealed to the trade. “I said, let’s just treat it like it’s a six-hour miniseries and we’re only going to go to Frankfurt once. We’re going to shoot all the scenes from 2 and 3 at the same time. That was more or less the motif. Actor availability was an issue as well. Anything that had to be done with a specific actor, we did all the scenes for 2 and 3 together — and a little bit of 4. Because once again, I had to shoot the kids out. They’re allowed to age six years in the middle of the story on page 25 of movie 4. So I needed everything before then, and then everything after, we’ll do later.”
The sequel is confirmed to feature several returning stars that include Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stepehn Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, CCH Pounder, Matt Gerald, and Sigourney Weaver. The cast for the sequels will include several more newcomers than returning members, though, with the likes of Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Oona Chaplin, David Thewlis and CJ Jones all set to appear as well. Plot details for the sequels are currently unknown.
Avatar: The Way of Water is in theaters now and Avatar 3 is set to debut two years later on December 20, 2024.
What do you think about the latest addition to the cast? Let us know in the comments below or by hitting up our writer @NateBrail on Twitter!
