Disney’s 20th Century Studios has officially released the teaser trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water, the highly-anticipated sequel opening in theaters on December 16, 2022. You can watch the teaser trailer using the player below, and you’ll find the new poster underneath!
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.
To whet audiences’ appetites, the studio will re-release Avatar in theaters on September 23.
Following Avatar: The Way of Water, the third installment, Avatar: The Seed Bearer, will be released on December 19, 2025.
Total Film recently talked to producer Jon Landau, who revealed more of the sequel’s plot. “I think the story of Avatar 2, and the strength of the story, is what Jim [Cameron] always does in any of his movies: he writes in universal themes that are bigger than any one genre,” said Landau.
“And if you think about this, there’s really no more universal theme than family. At the center of each of our sequels is the Sully family. What are the dynamics that parents go through to protect their family?”
The magazine added that the Sullys’ life is disrupted when the RDA mining operation returns to Pandora, forcing Jake to take the family to “what is perceived as a safe harbor” at the reef.
“And when you get to the reef, there’s a clan we call the Metkayina,” continued Landau. “The Sullys are no longer in the environment that they know, the rainforest. They become the fish out of water. They become the fish out of water from a cultural standpoint and from an environmental standpoint.”
The young members of the Sully family are played by Jamie Flatters, Britain Dalton, and Trinity Bliss, while the Metkayina Clan members are played by Bailey Bass, Filip Geljo, and Duane Evans Jr. Jack Champion is playing Javier “Spider” Socorro, a human teenager, born at Hell’s Gate but who prefers his time in the Pandoran rainforest more than the asphalt of Hell’s Gate.
The Avatar sequels are produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau through their Lightstorm Entertainment. The James Cameron-directed sequels are written by Cameron along with Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman, and Shane Salerno.
The first film was released in theaters on December 18, 2009, and still ranks as the top-grossing movie of all time worldwide with $2.847 billion. It was briefly passed up by Avengers: Endgame ($2.798 billion) in 2019 until a Chinese re-release saw Avatar retake the top spot in March 2021.
Mirko Parlevliet has been reporting on the entertainment industry since 1998 and founded Vital Thrills in 2018 to cover the latest news on streaming, movies, TV, and video games.