Avatar 2 release date: when is The Way of Water coming out, trailer, who is in cast of James Cameron sequel?

A full length trailer has now been released to the highly anticipated sequel to Avatar.

It’s been more than a decade since James Cameron released the first Avatar film, and also promised fans several sequels.

It’s finally happening, and fans can look forward to the first of four sequels hitting the cinema later this year.

So, what will the film be called, what will it be about, when will it be released in UK cinemas and how can you watch the trailer?

Here’s everything you need to know.

What will Avatar 2 be called?

The Avatar sequel will be called Avatar: The Way of Water. It was first reported by the BBC in 2018 that this was a possible title for the second film, and then in a 2019 interview with Entertainment Tonight Avatar director, writer, producer, and co-editor James Cameron confirmed that this was “one of the titles in consideration”.

Avatar 2 will follow on from the 2009 release of sci-fi epic adventure Avatar, which became one of the highest-grossing films worldwide. It is set in 2154 and tells the story of paraplegic Marine Jake Sully who decides to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora, which is the home to the Na’vi - a race of aliens with blue skin.

Jake is asked to infiltrate the Na’vi people by the cooperating military unit, with the use of an avatar identity which has been made so that he looks like the Na’vi race. He agrees to this in exchange for the spinal surgery that will fix his legs, but when he travels to Pandora he begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri.

What will Avatar 2 be about?

Fans will have to wait a little longer to find out exactly what the plotline of Avatar: The Way of Water will be as details are being kept a secret for now, as even the feature length trailer only hints at the storyline.

The new trailer does, however, offer some beautiful shots of underwater battle scenes as the Na’vi flee the destruction brought to Pandora by the human race again, and their technologically-advanced weapons.

Avatar: The Way of Water will pick up around ten years after the events of the first film. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is now a fully-fledged member of the Na’vi people, living a family life with his partner Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and their kids. The couple have four children, including an adopted daughtercalled Kiri (Sigourney Weaver).

While introducing the film to audiences at the Las Vegas CinemaCon earlier this year, Cameron told the crowd that he “set out to test the limits of what cinema can do” with the new film, and each audience member was given 3D glasses to watch the new footage.

Writer-direcor Liam O’Donnell has also revealed Cameron’s filmmaking process included the usage of 15 cameras, two of which were focused on every actor’s face, as well the use of underwater performance capture and “infrared depth capture to place CG characters in live-action footage”.

The synopsis of the film on IMDB reads “Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the planet of Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na’vi race to protect their planet.”

Who will be in the cast of Avatar 2?

Lead actors Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana will reprise their lead roles as Jake and Neytiri in Avatar: The Way of Water. Stephen Lang will also return as Colonel Miles Quaritch, meanwhile Sigourney Weaver will also return, but not as Doctor Grace Augustine. Instead, the 73-year-old actress, who was in the first Avatar film as Dr. Augustine, will be voicing Jake and Neytiri’s daughter. Dr. Augustine died in the first film and her character was not related to Jake or Neytiri in any way.

The film also features some big-name newcomers including Cameron’s Titanic star Kate Winslet and Vin Diesel. Little is known about Winslet and Diesel’s characters, as information about their involvement in the film has been kept under wraps. It has been revealed that Winslet’s character, called Ronal, will be part of Avatar’s new expansion of races on Pandora. In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2017, Cameron revealed that Winslet will play “a character who’s part of the Sea People, the reef people”. Diesel’s character remains a complete mystery.

When will Avatar 2 be released in the UK?

Avatar: The Way of Water will be in cinemas in the US and the UK on Friday 16 December this year, it has been confirmed. The film is planned to be released in a variety of formats, including 2D, 3D, IMAX and more. The original Avatar film is available to watch on services including Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video now.

The film’s runtime will be three hours, 10 minutes, which is more than 30 minutes longer than the first Avatar film.

What happens in the Avatar trailer?

The feature length trailer follows a shorter teaser trailer which was released in May this year. The latest trailer mostly focuses on the relationship between Jake and his daughter Kiri, and shows how their tribe will link up with other tribes on the oceans of Pandora to they fight off further attacks by humans.

You can watch the new full length trailer by scrolling back up to the top of this article.

What will the third, fourth or fifth films be called and when will they be released?

The names of the third, fourth and fifth Avatar films have not yet been confirmed, but Cameron has said that at least some of the footage for the other sequels was filmed back-to-back with Avatar: The Way of Water According to the 2018 BBC article, the films may be called Avatar: The Seed Bearer, Avatar: The Tulkun Rider and Avatar: The Quest for Eywa.

They are set to be released in the US on 20 December 2024, 18 December 2026 and 22 December 2028. No UK release dates for any of these three films have been announced.