Next December, 13 years after Avatar broke box office records around the globe, James Cameron‘s popular sci-fi franchise will finally be returning to the big screen. Cameron has four more Avatar movies on the way, the first of which will arrive at the end of 2022, and fans are anxious to finally see what the return to Pandora has in store. Virtually nothing is known about the plot of this next Avatar movie, other than it takes place near the oceans of Pandora. Now we finally know why.
Avatar 2 producer Jon Landau recently spoke to Total Film Magazine as a part of the publication’s 2022 preview issue, and opened up a bit about the story of the highly anticipated sequel. Avatar 2 picks up more than a decade after the original film, keeping true to the time that has elapsed in real life. Sam Worthington‘s Sully and Zoe Saldana’s Neytiri have become parents and are raising their own family. Their lives are upended when the RDA mining operation returns to Pandora and forces them on the run.
“And when you get to the reef, there’s a clan we call the Metkayina,” Landau said. “The Sullys are no longer in the environment they know, the rainforest. They become the fish out of water. They become the fish out of water both culturally and just environmentally.”
Landau also explained that what makes the story of Avatar 2 so strong and relatable is its ability to incorporate themes that go beyond one single genre.
“The scripts are the blueprint from which we work,” the producer explained. “So a large portion of our time was writing… with the challenge that each of those four scripts had to individually resolve itself in a story that concludes with a big emotional resolution — but when you look at them as a whole, the connected story arc of all four movies creates an even larger epic saga.”
“I think the story of Avatar 2, and the strength of the story, is what Jim always does in any of his movies: he writes in universal themes that are bigger than any one genre,” he continued. “And if you think about this, there’s really no more universal theme than family. At the center of each of our sequels is the Sully family. What are the dynamics that parents go through to protect their family?”
Avatar 2 is set to hit theaters on December 16, 2022. The first Avatar is currently streaming on Disney+.