Writer and Director James Cameron explains how he knew it was time to go back to the world of Pandora with Avatar: The Way of Water in this interview.
It has been 13 years since fans were shown the world of Pandora, and now Writer and Director James Cameron is bringing them back with Avatar: The Way of Water. During the press conference for the film, he was asked why now? Was there a specific moment that he knew he would be taking audiences back? He explains that this is a very interesting question in his answer.
James Cameron Explains Why Now For Avatar: The Way of Water
Cameron says that it might seem obvious to everyone to make a sequel to a film that makes you a bunch of money, but he points out that Stephen Spielberg didn’t do a sequel to E.T., which was the highest grossing film in its time. “It’s not a no-brainer. Do you want to call down the lightning strike again in the same spot? It’s a lot to live up to. But we have this amazing cast that returned, and we figured out a way to bring Sigourney Weaver back, as well, even though her character from the first film dies, obviously.”
Besides the actors agreeing to come back to their roles from Avatar for Avatar: The Way of Water, Cameron says there is also an amazing family of artists and troupe players. He admits that Kate Winslet joining the cast was a big incentive for him to come back and do it all again. But the story itself is an important piece of the puzzle.
“I think it’s important for a sequel to honor what the audience loved about the experience the first time. But also to get them off-balance and do things that they don’t expect.” James Cameron says there are a lot of surprises in terms of where the story goes in Avatar: The Way of Water. Plot points that they’re not putting into the trailers and the TV spots to keep the mystery alive.
“It also goes a lot deeper, in terms of the heart and the emotions. Sure, it was a much simpler story, and the characters were simpler, the first time. I was inspired by the fact that both Zoe and Sam are parents, and I’m a parent of five, and so we wanted to get into the family dynamics, and the responsibilities of having kids. And also what that’s all like from the kid’s perspective?”
Producer Jon Landau talks about the excitement of coming back to Pandora, and that for him it is the themes that James Cameron writes into his stories.
“Themes are what you leave the theater with. This movie has heart, has emotion, and it also has a message again about our world. Not just the environment, about accepting people for their differences. In the movie Jim wrote in the line, ‘I see you.’ And we want people to know that they’re seen, and that to see others that same way.”
Sam Worthington & Zoe Saldana On Coming Back
The two main characters from the first Avatar are back, and honestly it wouldn’t be a return to Pandora without them. Sam Worthington, who plays Jake Sully, and Zoe Saldana, who plays Neytiri, reprise their roles in Avatar: The Way of Water. They are now parents, and it changes the way they navigate the world. When asked about signing on for the sequels (there are three more Avatar films coming should the audience demand them), they both dive into what it was that convinced them, and what it feels like to be back.
Sam explains that James Cameron gave him a script that was basically Avatar 1.5 that was amazing and detailed what the Sully family when through over the decade-plus long gap. “Jim realized that the story was about them being warriors, and taking on the battles of the clans. But [he] wanted to explore what this family dynamic is, the natural extension of this love story. But it gave us a good jumping off point to understand how to fill in that gap that’s missing. To be honest, most people would’ve stuck on that one, but not this guy. It was pretty amazing.”
Zoe admits that it was terrifying to return to the role. “It’s so funny, because when something is very similar to you, you can’t see it. It’s just so close to you that it’s not in front of you. And Neytiri and I, in a way, we’ve lived parallel lives. There’s a level of fearlessness and rebellion that I have as a person that Neytiri has as herself. We were able to find kindred in that.”
She discusses the leap of falling in love with something outside of you that Neytiri takes, and the challenges that it brings along with it. “That has always been her dilemma. To surrender to that, and then to bring forward fruits of that love, but that presents the challenge for her. Because forcing her to grow, it’s forcing her to love something that she’s been taught to hate. And it’s hard. It’s really, really hard. Also fear.”
As she said, Zoe has lots of parallels in her own life to that of Neytiri, and now bringing in the family aspect of things she really understood it. “In my personal life, when I became a parent, fear entered my realm. The fear of losing something that you love so much. And you spend a great deal of your time creating these hypothetical scenarios that are unimaginable. When I read the second script, that was her, that was Neytiri. But I didn’t see it then. I see it now. Because my job wasn’t to see it, my job was to be it.”
Avatar: The Way of Water welcomes fans back to Pandora when it hits theaters everywhere on December 16th.
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About Avatar: The Way of Water
Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, “Avatar: The Way of Water” begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.
Directed by James Cameron and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau, the film stars Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement and Kate Winslet.
Avatar: The Way of Water comes to theaters everywhere December 16th.
