A decade went by while James Cameron worked on the Avatar sequel. In order to follow up the 2009 film with three further releases, Cameron paid particular attention to the underwater visual effects and wanted to make sure that there was a solid narrative. The director has previously disclosed that Avatar 3 and Avatar 4 were shot concurrently, and that the success of those two sequels depended on how well Avatar: The Way of Water did at the box office around the world. James has now discussed the potential justification for co-filming all three movies.
James was concerned that the audience wouldn’t feel cut off from the characters as a result of the time between films, during which the actors would mature in real life. Cameron said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, “I love Stranger Things, but you get the Stranger Things effect where they’re supposed to still be in high school, and they look like they’re 27. Jack Champion shot up like a weed when we were with him. We shot with Jack when he was 14 and 15, almost up to 16. So we were shooting him over an 18-month period.”
There was a six-month production pause due to the epidemic, during which James believed that the strategy would never work. “I was imagining scenarios where we don’t go back to work for a year and a half, and we’re completely screwed because he’s aged out, and then we have to go back and reshoot with another guy. It was like, ‘Just hand me the shotgun.’ But fortunately, it didn’t work out that way. We were able to appeal to the New Zealand government to let in a small group of our key actors so that we could bring the production back,” said the director.
The 2009 smash blockbuster Avatar, which dazzled audiences with cutting-edge 3D technology, was followed up with Avatar: The Way of Water. Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, who played Jake Sully and Neytiri ten years later as parents of five children, make a triumphant comeback in this movie. When the Sky People the Na’vi term for humans return to look for Jake, their tranquil existence is disturbed. Along with the other original performers, Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet is a newcomer to the film’s cast.