Avatar 2: The Way of Water is the direct sequel to the highest grossing movie of all time – Avatar. Yeah, no pressure then. The sequel has been in the works for a long time as James Cameron, director of Avatar wanted to expand on the world created by it. After Disney’s acquisition of Fox, they not only green lit the sequel rather other 3 follow-up films as well that are suppose to release at the 2 year interval. The studio has sure put in a lot of trust in Cameron and given his track record with Box Office numbers, it checks out. Earlier this year we’d gotten our first look at the sequel as the official teaser was released by Disney. Since then we’ve been getting small nuggets of information and footages for the sequel but no official trailer yet.
Some official images have been released that give us an idea of what specific characters will look like in the sequel. Like Kate Winslet’s Na’vi. Considering the budget the sequel is being made on i.e., $250 million it is fair to say Cameron is cooking something meaty for the audiences. The visuals in the film might and should be better than the original, the heavy post production work might be the reason behind the trailer being delayed. However, its long before the we start getting pieces of information. Although, Cameron has come out defending the sequel’s runtime even before we know how long it is.
How long is Avatar 2: The Way of Water?
While the time of writing we don’t have any updates on the sequel’s runtime but the frantic defense Cameron has made on it doesn’t give us good signals. Also, considering Cameron’s previous works, he has never been shy to keep the audiences in their seats as long as he seems justified. Even the original Avatar released in 2009 was 2 hours 42 minutes or 162 minutes long. That is just shy of 3 hours. We’re supposed to get to know more aspects of this world, so could it have exceeded its predecessor’s runtime?
Cameron has come out in defense of his Avatar 2 runtime in an interview with Empire, even before it was revealed. “I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours, I can almost write this part of the review. ‘The agonizingly long three-hour movie…’ It’s like, give me a f—— break. I’ve watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row.” Along with this the director also hinted at his eventual exit from the Avatar franchise.
James Cameron Exits Avatar 3, 4 and 5?
“The Avatar films themselves are kind of all-consuming,” he said. “I’ve got some other things I’m developing as well that are exciting, I think eventually over time – I don’t know if that’s after three or after four – I’ll want to pass the baton to a director that I trust to take over, so I can go do some other stuff that I’m also interested in. Or maybe not. I don’t know.” While his exit may only be in the form of a director and he can be involved in the films through various means what is interesting to see who can replace him?
More importantly if he does decide to quit, who does the Studio deem fit to invest so heavily on something? Cameron further added. “I had to think long and hard whether I even wanted to make another Avatar film because it was kind of ours to lose,” Cameron explained in a recent interview. “When you’ve done something that’s been that transcendent in terms of success, do you really want to go try and do that again? There’s a lot of pressure on it. I thought about it for a good two years before we finally made a deal.”
Check out the teaser of Avatar 2: The Way of Water
Avatar: The Way of Water is slated to release on 16th December 2022.
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