Avatar’s The Way of Water Trailer Will Actually Make You Excited About Avatar

Though the Avatar sequels have been in production for years, it's always seemed like there was a small chance they'd never actually show up; that James Cameron, renowned perfectionist, would keep tinkering with his insanely expensive follow-ups until we were too old to remember what Avatar even was. Well, the wait is over. Finally, thirteen years after the original sci-fi adventure about humans jumping into the bodies of tall, blue aliens unexpectedly became the highest-grossing film of all time, we're graced with actual footage of Avatar: The Way of Water. Feast your eyes:

Two words for you: wet and gorgeous. Of course, few men treasure the ocean and all its wonders more than James Cameron, and he appears to have poured his love of the great, vast sea into this movie, surely promising the most photorealistic fake world ever rendered on the big screen. Cleary the aim of this trailer was not to divulge much of the story, but to sell us the atmosphere of the movie, with its sunken depths and sunlight glistening on the water.

Perhaps then most surprising thing about this trailer is that, against the odds, it actually makes one reasonably excited about the prospect of Avatar 2, which once upon a time seemed largely impossible. “Nobody wants an Avatar sequel” has been the most lobbied online opinion since Cameron announced the follow-up (and its further three sequels) years ago, yet such notions almost seem to be negated by this footage. Has thirteen years resulted in an unexpected nostalgia we never knew we had for Jake Sully and his blue friends?

Avatar: The Way of Water will see mark the return of Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver, while Kate Winslet, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement and Edie Falco will join the cast in unspecified roles. Cameron plans to follow Way of Water with a new Avatar sequel for the next three years. Might as well get on board.

Avatar: The Way of Water is released in cinemas on 16 December 2022.