The release of Avatar: The Way of Water is nearly here after a 13-year wait since the first film’s premiere. Audiences are eager to fly back into the world of Pandora, with returning cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and Sigourney Weaver leading the way. The film will explore the oceans of the alien moon, as the title implies, offering a brand-new look at Pandora that audiences rarely saw in the first movie.
Saldana, who plays Neytiri in the Avatar franchise, recently spoke with Fandango and discussed the upcoming sequel. Although it’s been over a decade since the last release, the actress feels The Way of Water is going to be every bit as impactful as the movie that came before it.
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Avatar was groundbreaking, to say the least, when released in 2009. The inventive use of 3D technology and the best-in-class CGI helped make the picture the highest-grossing movie of all time. The world of Pandora was a journey everyone wanted to take at the time of release, and the cast and crew are hoping for a similar feeling in 2022.
“And I do believe that this is going to be like a culmination of [James Cameron] finally getting the opportunity to fully share with us all his passion for the water, for the ocean. He’s always had it. He had it in ‘The Abyss’ and with ‘Titanic.’ And I think that through the Metkayina tribe, and their world, we’re going to immerse ourselves in something that we have never seen before. And it will be also just as groundbreaking as ‘Avatar’ one was.”
Zoe Saldana Says Avatar: The Way of Water is a ‘Rediscovery’ of Pandora
20th Century Studios
Avatar mostly took place in the lush jungles that filled the moon of Pandora. Audiences were introduced to a wide variety of creatures, a few varying tribes, and the bioluminescent world that left fans in awe during the endless mesmerizing scenes. Now, Cameron is taking audiences to the depths of Pandora’s oceans, a previously unexplored area in the franchise. Zoe Saldana teases what to expect from Avatar: The Way of Water and how Pandora is similar to Earth.
Kate Winslet, Bailey Bass, Jemaine Clement, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Edie Falco, Jamie Flatters, and more join the main cast in the highly anticipated sequel. Avatar: The Way of Water is nearly ready for release, gliding into theaters later next month on Dec. 16.
“I do believe and my hope is that it’ll be the same - we’ll have the same reaction that we had for ‘Avatar’ one - and that will be more than okay because that was groundbreaking already, as it was. So a continuation of this, it is almost as if it’s a rediscovery of Pandora because before we got to see Pandora through the forest, and through the eyes of the Omaticaya tribe, and now we’re stepping into the world of the Metkayina, you know Na’vi. And they are the water people. It is the waterworld. And I do believe that Pandora is very similar to Earth, where in the sense that 80% of that planet is water. It’s a world all on its own. And it’s absolutely beautiful.”
