Avatar 2 Set Photos Reveal Look at Sequel’s Underwater Filming

20th Century Studios has dropped a new set of behind-the-scenes photos for James Cameron’s highly-anticipated second installment to the blockbuster action sci-fi film. The Avatar 2 set photos, which you can check out below along with new concept art, continue to tease the film’s underwater filming, where the main cast went through intense training to prepare for it.

Speaking with EW, the acclaimed filmmaker has finally opened up about the project’s lengthy production stage, describing its’ journey as “kind of crazy.”

“It sounds kind of nuts, the process,” Cameron said. “I mean, if Avatar hadn’t made so much damn money, we’d never do this — because it’s kind of crazy… I do the ocean thing when I’m not making movies. So if I could combine my two greatest loves — one of which is ocean exploration; the other, feature filmmaking — why wouldn’t I?”

.@JimCameron recently sat down with @EW and shared a few exclusive photos from the #AvatarSequels. Check out the photos  and read James Cameron’s interview here:https://t.co/zdhrBvUKG5 pic.twitter.com/NyaNjWxPoY

— Avatar (@officialavatar) December 14, 2021

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On the decision of shooting the film underwater, Cameron revealed that there were a lot of people who tried to convince them of using other methods of filming instead of doing it inside a 900,000-gallon tank.

“My colleagues within the production really lobbied heavily for us to do it ‘dry for wet,’ hanging people on wires,” Cameron shared. “I said, ‘It’s not going to work. It’s not going to look real.’ I even let them run a test, where we captured dry for wet, and then we captured in water, a crude level of our in-water capture. And it wasn’t even close.”

Cameron also went on to talk about the theatrical distribution’s current situation, while expressing his hopes that their long-delayed sequel would still be able to capture the audiences with its incredible visuals and storytelling.

“The big issue is: Are we going to make any damn money?” He said. “Big, expensive films have got to make a lot of money. We’re in a new world post-COVID, post-streaming. Maybe those [box office] numbers will never be seen again. Who knows? It’s all a big roll of the dice.”

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Set after over a decade, Avatar 2 will follow the next chapter in the lives of Sam Worthington’s Jake and Zoe Saldana’s Neytiri as they have now become parents. Their family’s happy and peaceful life will get suddenly upended with the return of the RDA mining operations to Pandora, who in the first film, were defeated and sent back to Earth.

The cast of the Avatar franchise includes Kate Winslet, Edie Falco, Michelle Yeoh, Vin Diesel, Jemaine Clement, and Oona Chaplin alongside a slate of young actors. Returning cast members include Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, Stephen Lang, Matt Gerald, and Sigourney Weaver.

The sequel is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 16, 2022