Avatar 2 producer Jon Landau shared a brand new collection of behind-the-scenes photos on the sequel's official Twitter account. The new photos also provided information on the new character actor Jack Champion will portray in the James Cameron film.
In order to prepare for filming, the cast and crew of Avatar 2 were taken on a trip to Hawaii in order to get a sense of the underwater worlds that will be explored in the film. One of the newly released behind-the-scenes photos from the trip features returning stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and some of the newcomers to cast who will portray the children of their characters. A second image reveals Cameron conversing with Sigourney Weaver, who returns for the sequel despite her character being killed off in the original film.
A third image features new cast members Cliff Curtis, Bailey Bass, and Filip Geljo in shallow water as they prepare for their roles as Na'vi from the Metkayina clan. Another post revealed new information about the character named Javier 'Spider' Socorro, a human teenager born at Hell's Gate who prefers to spend his time in the rainforests of Pandora. Actor Jack Champion was just twelve years old when he began work on Avatar 2 and the photos included in the post congratulating him on completing his last live-action shot on the film reveals just how much time as passed since then.
Production on Avatar 2 resumed in New Zealand in June 2020 after being temporarily halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, all cast and crew members had to go into quarantine for 14 days upon their return to New Zealand before filming could resume under government-approved health and safety production protocols. The pandemic also forced Disney to push back to the release date of Avatar 2 from December 2021 to December of the following year.
While the original Avatar earned over $2 billion worldwide to become the highest-grossing film of all time before being dethroned by Avengers: Endgame nearly a decade later, the merits of the film have often come into question since it was released 2009. Despite having held the box office crown for years, movigoers often question whether or not Avatar has had a lasting or memorable impact on pop culture.
James Cameron will have to hope that the naysayers will be proven wrong if the Avatar sequels are to be a financial success. The cost of producing Avatar 2 and the three sequels that follow reportedly amount to a total of $1 billion.
Avatar 2 is scheduled to be released in theaters on December 16, 2022.
Source: Avatar/Twitter