Finally, after a wait of more than a decade, Avatar: The Way of Water made it to the big screens. The sequel to the 2009 James Cameron directorial made people go head over heels for the magical experience provided by this movie. As known to everyone, this is not the end of the franchise as Cameron already stated that this is the first among four full-length sequels that are going to be released. The director filmed the sequel along with the future parts simultaneously and interestingly, the reason for it stated by him is directly linked to the filming of Netflix’s Stranger Things.
James Cameron is known for his pathbreaking visual effects in his movies. But even after being CGI-heavy, the effects show a beautiful blend of realism to it. Avatar 2 also stands successful in fulfilling the expectations of the audience and providing some breathtaking sequences. The recent statement by Cameron regarding the simultaneous working process of the sequels shows us why he is considered the best in his field.
Spoiler Warning!
What is “the Stranger Things effect”?
James Cameron’s passion for cinema can be understood by the fact that he chose to film underwater sequences instead of relying only on CGI. His quest for a realistic approach led him to film many sequences underwater. He even led the stars to film in their mo-cap suits underwater so that Avatar: The Way of Water can show the true beauty of Pandora and the Na’vi people with a brilliant sense of realism.
This also led him to cast a wide array of new characters for the sequel and especially many child actors and actresses. As explained by the 68-year-old director, he filmed the third and fourth parts along with the second installment as he didn’t want his franchise to face the same fate as Stranger Things. He introduced a term called “the Stranger Things effect”.
“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. You know, I love the show. It’s okay, we’ll suspend disbelief. We like the characters, but, you know.”
In the latest season of Stranger Things, although the characters were claimed to be high school students, they looked nothing like that and a lot of audiences complained about it. Similarly, the child actors were a lot younger when they were cast originally in The Way of the Water which took 13 years to complete. Filming the sequels after long intervals would have affected Cameron’s wide roadmap of the Avatar franchise which resembles a TV Show.
“The way I mapped this out is that it’s one big continuous saga when you see it all, but each film has its own offramp and finale that rounds it all out. The best metaphor is really good episodic TV, where you understand the problems of the character. The specific proximal problem of this story has been resolved, but these characters are going to have the same problem next time I drop in on them because they’re not going change that much, or they will change profoundly if something happens that’s bad enough or enlightening enough.”
Besides Neteyam, the rest of the children of Pandora all survived the final big battle against Colonel Miles Quaritch which shows that Cameron still has a lot to show us about them in the upcoming threequel and the further parts.
What is James Cameron’s vision for the future of Avatar?
Avatar: The Way of Water turned out to be one of the best movies released this year. Despite its colossal length of more than three hours, both critics as well as the audience loved the movie and praised highly the spectacular visual effects shown in the movie. Currently, it has collected a sum of $497.2 million.
As stated by the producer John Landau, each movie will present us with a new aspect of the world of Pandora which shows that Cameron has planned a rich future for the franchise and we are yet to watch much more about the moon.
“Each movie is going to introduce audiences to new clans, new cultures on Pandora. Once we introduce a character, they stay a part of the ongoing evolution. We just add to it. So you can expect to see the Metkayina that you meet in this movie in subsequent movies. There are other clans that we’ll introduce in movie 3 that you’ll see in movie 4 and so on and so forth.”
According to some sources, it came up that James Cameron might decide to hold Avatar 4 and 5 in case the second and third parts don’t run well at the box office. But then producer Landau stated in 2019 that some parts of the fourth film have even completed filming. Now it will only be up to the time to reveal everything.
Avatar: The Way of Water is running in the theaters while Avatar 3 is slated to release on December 20, 2024.
Stranger Things can be streamed on Netflix.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
