Get ready to hold your breath and dive back into the breathtaking blue-tinged world of Pandora.
A wave of excitement is building towards next month's release of director James Cameron's eagerly-awaited "Avatar" sequel, "Avatar: The Way of Water," and to add to the tsunami of interest a new full trailer just arrived from 20th Century Studios showcasing the film's jaw-dropping CGI effects.
Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, and Kate Winslet, this $250 million sci-fi spectacle takes place over a decade after the events of the original billion-dollar blockbuster from 2009. The "Avatar" sequel continues the ongoing story of Jake Sully, Neytiri and their children as Colonel Quaritch returns uninvited to their Pandora home, and how these renewed struggles to keep the native aliens and their family safe through triumphs and tragedies unfold.
Related: Everything we know about Avatar 2: release date, plot, cast and more
"The Way of Water's" supporting cast also includes Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, Edie Falco, and Jemaine Clement.
This fresh trailer offers up extended panoramic peeks at Jake and Neytiri's aquatic environment along the continent's Metkayina coastline and their Na'vi offspring: Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), Tuktirey (Trinity Bliss) and adopted daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver). In the 2-minute visual feast, we're treated to a riveting assortment of underwater leviathans, soaring amphibious creatures, bioluminescent sealife, unwelcoming Metkayina tribes, Quaritch's new Recombinant avatar, and human invaders strapped inside gleaming exoskeleton machines.
'The story is about family, about our families trying to stay together [and] the lengths to which we all go to protect each other and protect the place where we live," Weaver told Variety back in September. "It's very much based on [James Cameron's] family and his joy in the family; and also, how vulnerable you are when you have children."
Cameron is doing triple-duty on this long-delayed followup to his first "Avatar" film by writing, producing, and editing. Joining him in the costly creative endeavor are producers Jon Landau and Peter M. Tobyansen, and co-screenwriters Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno. David Valdes and Richard Baneham act as the holiday time movie's executive producers.
"Avatar: The Way of Water," the first of four planned sequels slated arrive every two years, floods theaters on Dec. 16, 2022.
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