Avatar: The Way Of Water Trailer: It's Time To Return To Pandora

"Avatar: The Way of Water" is almost here. That's a strange sentence to type given the fact that it's been thirteen years since the last "Avatar" film hit theaters, and at some point the long-in-the-works sequels became an "I'll believe it when I see" it sort of movie. Well, there's good news: soon, we can finally see it, or at least a part of it, as the latest trailer for James Cameron's epic has just been unleashed.

The second full trailer for the sequel premiered during "Good Morning America" today, but you can head back to Pandora by watching it right here:

This isn't the first footage we've seen from "Avatar: The Way of Water," but it offers a fresh glimpse at Cameron's vision for the follow-up to the highest-grossing film on earth. The first trailer revealed the stunning visuals we've come to expect from the director, and gave us a mostly wordless look at an underwater landscape that includes whale-like creatures and sea banshees. Footage also screened exclusively at D23 Expo, and those clips were a lot more forthcoming about the plot than that first teaser. They revealed that Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have a whole gaggle of children, including a human adoptee, and that the first film's villain, Quaritch (Stephen Lang), will be back in some capacity. Also, Kate Winslet is there!

"Avatar" was a massive hit when it debuted in 2009, and is still breaking its own box office records as recently as this year, when it returned to theaters ahead of the sequel. As of publication time, it has made an astounding $2.9 billion at the box office. The original film still evokes mixed responses among critics and viewers: many see it as a dazzling, captivating story while some (myself included) have questioned its takes on race and sex, not to mention its originality beyond the groundbreaking visual effects. 

With a daunting amount of money already poured into several sequels, it sounds like Cameron is banking on a massive audience to make the multi-decade journey worth it. In June, he told Empire Magazine, "If we did 20 per cent or 30 per cent less because the market simply doesn't exist anymore, that would be bad." 

I have a feeling the new film will hit big, but we'll see how the sequel stacks up against the original when "Avatar: The Way of Water" hits theaters on December 16, 2022.