If you watched Avatar: The Way of Water and thought, "Man, this feels like half a movie," then you aren't alone. In fact, there's a good reason for that because it's now been confirmed that the script, written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, ended up being split into two movies.
Talking to Variety (via SFFGazette.com), the writers confirmed that director James Cameron wanted both The Way of Water and Avatar 3 to serve as satisfying experiences in their own right (that's debatable). However, the fact that the follow-up to 2009's Avatar was split straight down the middle would explain that cliffhanger ending and the huge number of unresolved plot threads!
While Jaffa and Silver were unwilling to reveal too much about how the events of The Way of Water inform what comes next, the former says fans should keep in mind the tense exchange between Jake and Neytiri and the leaders of the Metkayina clan, Tonowari and Ronal, when the Sully family first arrive requesting sanctuary.
"There’s a lot going on between husbands and wives and between the two husbands and the two wives," he teases. "There are a lot of dynamics set up that continue to play out."
Silver adds, "You have this kind of deeply relatable series of dynamics, inter-family, interpersonal, inter-clan, played out on these incredibly inflated scales of different worlds. The clans that you’re going to meet and the worlds that you’re going to find on Pandora — you can’t even imagine what they are."
"Just like the tulkun were a revelation for this movie, there’s lots more of that stuff to come. It’s incredibly exciting, the story that happens to the Sullys. You couldn’t predict it."
There was an whole lot of filler in Avatar: The Way of Water, and the ways that Cameron stretched the story out are now more apparent. Once we see Avatar 3 - which has been shot, as have parts of Avatar 4 - we have a feeling the sequel will play a little better, though we can't help but wonder just how big Cameron's vision actually is if movie three is just the rest of movie two!
That fourth instalment may be in the works but hasn't been green lit, and that happening will hinge on the success of the second and third chapters.
As always, stay tuned to SFFGazette.com for updates.