It’s been over ten years since James Cameron’s Avatar was released and fans have been waiting for more details about the sequel. Avatar is Cameron’s epic sci-fi franchise that shattered box office records and held the title of the highest-grossing movie of all-time for about a decade. It was briefly unseated by Avengers: Endgame, but reclaimed the top spot shortly afterwards, now sitting at #1 with a total lifetime gross of $2.8 billion.

Producer Jon Landau recently had a chance to speak with Total Film Magazine, where he teased some upcoming developments for the sequel, which will feature extensive underwater sequences and environments.

Landau mentioned that the basic story of the film will center on new parents Jake (played by Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (played by Zoe Saldana). The family flees Pandora when the RDA mining operations once again threaten their home world.

The Sullys and the Na’vi seek an oceanic safe haven, which turns out to be a different experience than they had anticipated, with Landau stating, “And when you get to the reef, there’s a clan we call the Metkayina. The Sullys are no longer in the environment that they know, the rainforest. They become the fish out of water. They become the fish out of water both culturally and just environmentally.”

Landau continues by saying, “I think the story of Avatar 2, and the strength of the story, is what Jim [Cameron] always does in any of his movies: he writes in universal themes that are bigger than any one genre. And if you think about this, there’s really no more universal theme than family. At the center of each of our sequels is the Sully family. What are the dynamics that parents go through to protect their family?”

The news about the underwater setting for the Avatar sequel has been well-known for some time now, with a set photo posted by Cameron last December teasing a boat set dubbed “The Matador”. The second and third Avatar films had their live-action components filmed at the same time, and scripts have been written for the fourth and fifth films. There are no confirmed released dates for any of the following films, but the fourth installment is slated for a 2028 release.

The second Avatar film is only one of numerous blockbusters that have faced multiple delays because of COVID-19.

Photos via 20th Century Fox