Zoe Saldaña has confirmed that she has seen the final cut of Avatar: The Way of Water. The star, who co-led James Cameron’s 2009 science-fiction epic as the Na’vi Neytiri, is set to reprise her role in the sequel. Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, and Stephen Lang will also be returning, though Weaver and Lang will not be playing the same characters as before.
Saldaña revealed, in an appearance on Lieutenant Uhura in the rebooted Star Trek film franchise (which also started in 2009), Avatar skyrocketed her career to new heights of stardom. It’s unsurprising that, as Saldaña its to Fallon, the experience of watching the much-anticipated sequel left such an impact on her personally.
“I'm still processing, it's very emotional. I'm surprised my eyelashes stayed on. I was like sobbing. So it's really special, and I can give you like a little hint: it's about water!”
Saldaña's Avatar 2 Reaction Highlights A Key Difference From The Original
Avatar: The Way of Water is the second of James Cameron’s planned five-film franchise, though these plans have seen several delays over the years. Filming for both this installment and Avatar 3 took place simultaneously, lasting more than three years because of the pandemic disruption. One of the most expensive film productions in Hollywood history (estimated between $350-400 million), all eyes are on the question of whether the sequel can inherit its predecessor’s crown as the world’s highest-grossing film of all time. In order to reach those same heights, the film has to be more than spectacle and emotionally connect with audiences. Cameron himself has acknowledged that The Way of Water needs to be at least in the top four of all-time box office successes just to break even.
Since bringing Neytiri to life, Saldana has found global recognition thanks to her starring role as Gamora in the MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, swapping blue mo-cap skin for green body paint. Outside of Sigourney Weaver, she has the highest name recognition of the original film’s cast for today’s typical movie-going audience and so is especially well-positioned for promoting the Avatar sequel to a whole new generation. Her own reaction to seeing the finished film also suggests that audiences can expect a more emotionally impactful experience this time around, one of the more common criticisms of its predecessor being that it lacked emotionality.
Whilst plot details for the sequel remain scarce, this suggestion of heightened emotionality seems to be reinforced by how the film’s marketing hints at questions of existence, identity, and death. The teaser trailer ends with Jake Sully expressing how he finds strength in the family he’s made with Neytiri, whilst the official trailer features a resurrected (and clearly vengeful) Colonel Quaritch crushing a human skull in his new Na’vi Avatar hand. Sigourney Weaver's return as Jake and Neytiri's daughter, despite playing an entirely different human character killed off in the original, also offers tremendous intrigue and storytelling potential. Clearly, Cameron will be taking Avatar: The Way of Water into more personal depths.
