Development in 2022 In 2006, Cameron said if
Avatar (2009) was successful, he would consider making two sequels; he had included scenes in the first film that could be used for future story follow-ups. He said the sequels would explore other nearby moons, and he intended to capture footage for the films at the bottom of the
Mariana Trench using a deepwater submersible. The films would continue the environmental theme of
Avatar, but would not be "strident" and would be focused more on entertainment. Cameron planned to shoot the sequels
back-to-back and at a
higher frame rate than the industry standard 24 frames per second, to add a heightened sense of reality. The sequels were originally scheduled for release in 2014 and 2015. In 2013, Cameron announced that the sequels would be filmed in New Zealand, with performance capture to take place in 2014. An agreement with the
New Zealand government required at least one world premiere to be held in Wellington and at least
NZ$500 million (roughly US$410 million) to be spent on production activity in New Zealand, including live-action filming and visual effects. The New Zealand government announced it would raise its baseline tax rebate for filmmaking from 15% to 20%, with 25% available to international productions in some cases. Cameron mentioned a possible third sequel for the first time in 2012, confirming it the following year. By August 2013, his plan was to release
Avatar 2 in 2016, followed by the other two sequels in 2017 and 2018. The following month, Fox announced a further release delay. By February 2016, production of the sequels was scheduled to begin in April 2016 in New Zealand. In April 2016, Cameron announced at CinemaCon that there would be four
Avatar sequels, all filmed simultaneously. New crew members for the sequels included cinematographer
Russell Carpenter, who worked with Cameron on
True Lies (1994) and
Titanic (1997), and
art director Aashrita Kamath. Kirk Krack, founder of
Performance Freediving International, worked as a
free-diving trainer for the cast and crew for the underwater scenes.
Writing In 2012, Cameron said the sequels were being written as separate stories with "an overall arc inclusive of the first film", with the second film having a clear conclusion instead of a
cliffhanger ending. The following year, four screenwriters were announced:
Josh Friedman,
Shane Salerno, and the writing duo of
Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. He said although Friedman, Salerno, and the duo of Jaffa and Silver were each co-writing one sequel with him, at first everyone worked together on all the scripts. Cameron waited until as late as possible to assign each writer to a specific film, so they would stay focused on the larger overall story. At one point, Cameron threatened to fire his writers because they were not spending enough time figuring out what made the original film so popular, a process he felt was essential to guarantee the success of the sequels. The writing took longer than expected, and in early 2015 Cameron further delayed the release of the sequels. He estimated that the scripts had taken four years to write overall. Cameron said
The Way of Water explores the consequences of Jake and Neytiri becoming parents. He explained that Jake could act recklessly in the first film, without the responsibilities of a family, but now he has to be more careful. Cameron said a question for Jake, as both a warrior and father, is whether to protect his sons or allow them to fight. In a December 2019 interview, Stephen Lang said Cameron always meant for his character Quaritch to return, even as they were shooting the original film. At one point during the writing process, Cameron spent a year writing a 130-page script for the first sequel himself, titled
Avatar: The High Ground. He ultimately threw it out, because he felt it lacked the spiritual component which was central to the success of
Avatar, and because it did not have enough surprises for audiences. Several cast announcements were made in 2017.
Joel David Moore,
CCH Pounder and
Matt Gerald were confirmed to return from
Avatar.
Cliff Curtis joined the cast as Tonowari, the leader of a Na'vi reef clan called the Metkayina. The young actors would spend six months training for underwater scenes filmed in performance capture, and eventually they could all hold their breath underwater for 2–4 minutes. In October 2017, it was announced that
Giovanni Ribisi would reprise his role of Parker Selfridge in all four sequels. Like many other actors playing
Na'vi in the film, Winslet had to learn
free diving.
Edward Norton turned down an undisclosed role in
Avatar 2. Joel David Moore's infant son Oliver filmed a brief cameo as an infant Neteyam.
Principal photography began on September 25, on a $350–$460million budget.
The Way of Water is one of the
most expensive films ever made, and was filmed simultaneously with
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025). Some scenes were shot at the industry-standard 24
frames per second, while others were shot at 48 frames per second. The faster frame rate allowed fast-moving objects to remain clearly visible. At one point, the shooting schedule had to be adjusted to allow Sigourney Weaver to film a
cameo appearance for the
series eight finale of the television series
Doc Martin (2004–22). On November 14, the crew filmed the first underwater
motion capture scenes, which featured six of the seven main child actors. The underwater fight scene between Jake and Quaritch was difficult and risky, because the actors were required to perform choking motions, which can cause drowning. Worthington and Lang were overseen by a safety team during the shoot. While filming one underwater scene, Winslet held her breath for over seven minutes, breaking the record for longest breath hold while shooting a film scene underwater, a record previously held by
Tom Cruise while shooting
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015). On March 17, 2020, Landau announced that filming had been postponed indefinitely due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. However, virtual production continued in
Manhattan Beach and visual effects work continued at
Weta Digital in
Wellington. In early May, health and safety protocols for production had been endorsed by the New Zealand government, allowing filming to resume in the country. On June 1, Cameron, Landau, and at least 55 crew members returned to New Zealand to resume filming. Before they could begin, they had to submit to a two-week government-supervised isolation period at a hotel in Wellington.
Avatar 2 and
3 became the first major Hollywood films to resume production after filming was postponed due to the pandemic. Filming resumed on June 16. The production hired 46 New Zealand cast members, including
Cliff Curtis and
Duane Evans Jr., as well as 114 local stunt performers, 36 apprentices and interns, and almost 800 extras. In September, Cameron stated that live-action filming in New Zealand had been completed. He said that all filming for
Avatar 2 was now complete, while 95% of
Avatar 3 had been shot. Filming for
Avatar 2 had taken more than three years. In July 2022, the
New Zealand Film Commission disclosed that the
Avatar sequels had received over NZ$140 million worth of public funding through the country's Screen Production Grant. While
ACT party deputy leader
Brooke van Velden criticized the government's film subsidy program for allegedly taking public funding from other areas, the Economic Development and Regional Development Minister
Stuart Nash argued that New Zealand's film subsidies for major Hollywood productions brought much-needed overseas investment and jobs to the domestic film industry.
Visual effects and editing On July 31, 2017, it was announced that
Weta Digital had commenced work on the
Avatar sequels, which contain many underwater scenes. Since underwater
motion capture filming had never been accomplished before, the team spent a year and a half developing a new motion capture system that could be used underwater. Weta's VFX producer David Conley said
Avatar 2 was the biggest visual effects project the company had ever undertaken, totalling nearly 3.3 billion thread hours. To manage the enormous amount of data, Weta utilized the services of the cloud storage company
Amazon Web Services.
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) assisted with visual effects work for the film. During the editing process, Cameron removed about ten minutes of "gunplay action" from
The Way of Water. He cited mass shootings, such as the
Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, as a reason to reduce gun violence in the film. == Music ==