Finally, a new Avatar

The sequel to the ground-breaking 2009 epic has taken more than a decade to hit the silver screen.  

Why so blue? 

It’s taken 13 long years, but we’re finally getting a new Avatar. Back in 2009, James Cameron’s sci-fi epic laid claim to all manner of records in the movie industry, and to date it remains the highest-grossing movie ever made. Avengers: Endgame came close, and Titanic now trails in third. But Avatar reigns supreme. And how do you follow something that has a lifetime gross of $2.8 billion? We’re about to find out.   

Avatar: The Way of Water will hit cinemas on 16 December 2022, and with such a lengthy period between the OG and the sequel, we’re expecting big things. Originally, the plan was to release Avatar 2 in 2014, and another just one year later. But as is the case with big movie franchises, things didn’t go to plan. And, y’know… Covid.  

Show us the way 

So, why exactly did The Way of Water take so darn long to make? With a budget of more than $250 million, James Cameron hasn’t exactly been sat around twiddling his thumbs – although that’s probably what we’d be doing if someone told us to go and spend a quarter of a billion on making a movie.  

Instead, Cameron has been dreaming big. He wants Avatar to become much bigger than just this one sequel, with another three films set to come by 2028. And with this plan in motion, he’s shot Avatar 2 and 3 back to back. Plus, the actual plans for the world in which the films are set – called Pandora – are as ambitious as you might expect. Ditching the incredible, utopian setting of the first movie for the depths of the ocean, it’s clear that Cameron knows more than most how to spend hundreds of millions on making a movie.  

It’s all been a pretty huge undertaking, but we’re backing him to pull it out of the bag. See you down at the movie theatre. We’ll bring the popcorn.