Avatar 2 Has A New Trailer, Watch Blue People Swim Through Fire

A new Avatar 2 trailer has arrived, with stunning new visuals of Pandora's breathtaking seas.

By Vic Medina | Published

Avatar: The Way of Water has released a new trailer, giving us a bit more character development and a better hint at the film’s plot. It’s been more than a decade since director James Cameron brought us the first film, which became a global phenomenon and set box office records. Avatar 2 looks to expand the world we saw in the 2009 film, and the trailer for the sequel looks promising.

The trailer begins showing Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) living a peaceful life on Pandora, in harmony with nature, with some stunning underwater visuals driving home the point. However, it quickly becomes clear that all is not well, as humans and their mechs show up, and a new battle for Pandora begins.

It’s been a decade since the events in the first film, and Jake and Neytiri now have children, who will figure prominently in the Avatar 2 storyline. That includes an adopted daughter, Kiri, played by Sigourney Weaver and featured in the trailer. It’s an interesting casting choice, considering she played a character in the first film who died, Dr. Grace Augustine.

In a recent interview, Weaver said she would have never been cast had she not had a close relationship with Cameron, dating back to 1986’s Aliens. It appears the effects crew had no problem making her CGI character appear as a teen, although the Avatar 2 trailer makes it clear her voice has been altered, so the 72-year-old sounds much younger.

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A scene from Avatar: The Way of Water

Kiri seems to have a special connection to the “heartbeat” of Pandora, a biological network featured in the first film’s Tree of Souls. That connection comes under threat with the return of Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who died in the first film, but is back thanks to a new avatar body. He’s out for revenge, which threatens Jake’s family and the Na’vi tribe the Metkayina, who live on the ocean reef they now call home.

Quaritch’s return, and the war he brings, is not welcomed by the Metkayina leader Tonowari, played by Cliff Curtis (Fear the Walking Dead), but it doesn’t appear he has a choice. Battles ensue both on the land and sea, as we see a large fire consuming a Pandora landscape, and a number of previously-unseen sea creatures seeming to join the fight against the humans on the water.

Avatar: The Way of Water also stars Kate Winslet as Ronal, Jamie Flatters as Neteyam, Michelle Yeoh as Dr. Karina Mogue, and Jemaine Clement as Dr. Ian Garvin. Giovanni Ribisi also returns from the first film as Parker Selfridge, likely still on a quest for more of the planet’s unobtanium. Avatar 2 reportedly runs three hours and ten minutes long, so wear comfortable clothes to the theater when the film opens on December 16.

The first Avatar earned over $2.9 billion at the box office in 2009, as audiences were drawn to the groundbreaking 3D presentation. Avatar 2 will also be presented in 3D, with the trailer promising it will also screen in IMAX 3D, for a jaw-dropping theater experience for those near an IMAX theater.