'Avatar: The Way of Water': Here's why James Cameron was hesitant to make 'Avatar' sequels
In 2009, James Cameron’s magnum opus ‘Avatar’ took the world by storm and became the world’s highest-grossing movie of all time. Set in the lush alien world of Pandora, the movie revolves around the Na'vi, beings who appear primitive but are highly evolved. Humans try contacting them and create hybrid versions of Na’vi/Humans. However, things take a U-turn when humans try attacking the world of Pandora for their own gains.
The movie went on to become a cultural phenomenon and touched the $1 billion mark in just 19 days, becoming the fastest film to gross $1 billion at the time. After receiving glaring reviews from the critics as well as audiences, Cameron announced that he will be making more ‘Avatar’ movies in the coming future. Now that the second movie in ‘Avatar’ universe is arriving soon in theatres, the filmmaker has revealed how long he finally convinced himself to make more movies in the same universe.
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Apart from being the highest-grossing movie of all time, ‘Avatar’ also won three Academy Awards, including Best Visual Effects, Best Cinematography, and Best Art Direction.
Speaking on the sequel titled ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’, Cameron told Empire Magazine that he took a lot of time to think about making another ‘Avatar’ film and one of the reasons for being so hesitant about directing another movie in the same universe was related to the first film’s record-breaking success. He 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.”
The legendary filmmaker also stated that there was a lot of “pressure” on him and took almost “two years” before making a deal with 20th Century Studios. “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,” Cameron said.
The trailer for ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ was released in May 2022 and received a rousing reception. The trailer amassed 148 million views on YouTube in the first 24 hours of its release and was praised for the magnificent VFX and setting.
Sam Worthington will be seen reprising the role of Jake Sully and Zoe Saldana will be portraying the character of Neytiri. Original cast members like Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, and Matt Gerald will also be reprising their roles from the first movie. On the other hand, new cast members include the likes of Kate Winslet, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Jermaine Clement, and Vin Diesel.
‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ is scheduled to hit theatres on December 16, 2022.