Avatar 2 news keeps coming, particularly about the plot and story, and the release date. No trailer has been released yet.
Let’s check out everything we know so far:
Release Date and Filming
-Avatar 2 is scheduled for a December 2016 release date. The other sequels will take the route of trilogies such as the Hobbit--Avatar 3 will come out in December 2017 and Avatar 4 will come out in December 2018.
-Also similar to the Hobbit, the filming will take place at the same time for the second and third movie. Josh Friedman (“War of the Worlds”) is helping write Avatar 2; Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) are slated to writer another; and Shane Salerno ("Salinger) is slated to write the third.
-Production should start soon and filming should start in fall 2014, actor Sam Worthington (Jake Sully) told radio station NovaFM in October 2013. “We are going to start this time next year, and we will do two, three and four. In one shot, we‘ll do them simultaneously,” he said. “I’ll be grateful if it finishes.”
-All three sequels will be filmed in New Zealand.
Story and Plot
-The Alpha Centauri AB system (other planets) is going to get explored by the Avatar characters, though probably not in Avatar 2. “Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different environment – a different setting within Pandora,” director James Cameron told the LA Times. “And I’m going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative, but it just won’t be a rain forest. I’m not saying we won’t see what we’ve already seen; we’ll see more of that as well.”
-The focus on the oceans is a way of highlighting the issues in real-life, Cameron told Nightline: “We will see the oceans of Pandora, which we haven’t seen at all and that’s an ecosystem that I’m dying to start designing because it’s going to look spectacular… [‘Avatar 2’] narrows the spotlight instead of just nature in general or the rainforest. It focuses it a little more on ocean issues, because we have a planet that’s a blue planet. From a distance, you look at it, the Earth is a lot more blue than it is, you know brown, the land mass. We’re making the oceans unsurvivable for a lot of the species right now. For a lot or reasons. It’s just a way to focus a little energy in that direction.”
-But the oceans won’t be the whole movie, Cameron told AP. “It’s going to be a lot of new imagery and a lot of new environments and creatures across Pandora. We’re blowing it out all over the place. At first I thought I was going to take it onto other worlds as well, in the same solar system, but it turned out not to be necessary. I mean the Pandora that we have imagined will be a fantasy land that is going to occupy people for decades to come, the way I see it. … There’s a fair bit of underwater stuff. It’s been inaccurately said that the second film takes place underwater. That’s not true. There are underwater scenes and surface-water scenes having to do with indigenous ocean cultures that are distributed across the three films.”
-Avatar 2 will be a continuation of the first film, Cameron added. ““I think it’s just a continuation of the same thing [from the first film]. I want people to feel that same sense of excitement about that world [Pandora],” he said. “You know, the fictional Na’vi people and I want them to feel that excitement of discovery of a new world that they’re going to see things that they haven’t imagined.”
-The story will spread beyond Sully. “We spread it around quite a bit more as we go forward. It’s really the story of his family, the family that he creates on Pandora. His extended family,” Cameron told AP. “So think of it as a family saga like ‘The Godfather.’”
Cast
-Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is going to be back, even though it appeared in the first film like he wouldn’t be. “Steven was so memorable in the first film, we’re privileged to have him back,” Cameron told Deadline. “I’m not going to say exactly how we’re bringing him back, but it’s a science fiction story, after all. His character will evolve into really unexpected places across the arc of our new three-film saga. I really look forward to working with such a gifted actor, who’s also become a good friend.”
-Michelle Rodriguez (Trudy Chacon) isn’t confirmed to be in the sequel (s) yet, but has expressed hope that she will be.
-Sam Worthington (Jake Sully) and Zoe Saldana (Neytiri) are both going to be back in main roles. “Jake Sully is a rare combination of passion, strength, street smarts and soul, which requires a lot from an actor,” Cameron said in a press release. “Sam brought to the role a combination of sensitivity, vulnerability and strength. Zoe captured every aspect of the character I envisioned, bringing to Neytiri a mix of delicacy, fierceness and incredible physicality. I am beyond pleased they'll be returning with us to Pandora.”
-Sigourney Weaver will be back as Grace, she told Coming Soon. “Jim [Cameron] says no one ever dies in science fiction. He’s told me the stories for the next two movies and I have to say that they’re absolutely wonderful and there’s a real treat in store. Now we just have to make them.”
