The long-awaited sequels to James Cameron’sAvatarwill have to wait even longer it seems with theaters keeping their doors closed for the foreseeable future. News hasn’t completely dried up yet, however, with producer Jon Landau showing off a sneak peak of a new underwater vehicle that will presumably play a part in one of the upcoming sequels.
While little is known about the upcoming films beyond their estimated release years, James Cameron has brought up the idea of exploring the underwater environments of Pandora in one of the sequels. Ever the innovator, Cameron’s team has been working on technology that will allow them to set large portions of the film underwater, including motion capture tech that can be completely submerged. The crew had been wrapping up filming for the second and third films when Covid caused a brief delay for the New Zealand based production.
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Released in 2009, the originalAvatarwas a smash hit, featuring incredibly impressive visual effects and technological tricks to make the world of Pandora come to life in theaters. Just like he did back with the liquid metal CGI inTerminator 2, James Cameron pioneered many new filming techniques during the filming ofAvatar, including motion capture breakthroughs, head rigs for facial motion capture, and even a way to insert a new facial capture on top of an already preformed scene. While many criticscomplained about the film’s rather generic and predictable story, audiences worldwide were dazzled by the visual experience, to the point where some claimed to suffer “Avatar Depression,” when they realized they could never visit the beautiful Pandora in real life.
Since then however, news about the planned sequels has been surprisingly light. While the first sequel was originally scheduled to release in 2014, a number of delays have pushed back production time and time again, withCovid-19 being just the latestin a seemingly unending set of roadblocks for the film franchise. Things finally got going in 2017 as the crew worked to film the next two films at the same time, with Cameron claiming they would return to make the fourth and fifth films ifAvatar 2is a success.
For now, fans can enjoy this fun new image of the appropriately named “Crabsuit,” and speculate about what role it may play in the upcoming film. With any luck, the film will be wrapping up production and getting released to theaters without anymore serious delays.
Avatar 2is planned to hit theaters in December 2022
