James Cameron, Producer Jon Landau Give Update On 'Avatar' Sequel: 'A Story About Family'

James Cameron opened up about the anticipated sequel to his epic science fiction film "Avatar."

Cameron, 67, talked about the awaited "Avatar" sequel with Entertainment Weekly. The 2009 film was a huge hit, and fans have been waiting for the second movie for over a decade already.

"It sounds kind of nuts, the process," Cameron told the outlet. "I mean, if 'Avatar' hadn't made so much damn money, we'd never do this — because it's kind of crazy."

Cameron planned the sequel in 2012 and brought in a writing team in 2013. There is no official title for "Avatar 2" yet, but they started filming in 2017. The storyline is set 14 years after former human soldier Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Na'vi warrior Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) settled down and started their own family. According to producer Jon Landau, the sequel will be about family.

"Ultimately, the sequels are a story about family, and the lengths parents will go through to keep that family together and keep them safe," he told EW. "I always say that Jim's movies have universal themes — and really, there's no more universal theme than family."

Kate Winslet is joining the cast of the "Avatar" sequel. The movie marks her and Cameron's reunion after "Titanic." Winslet plays one of the Metkayina, a mysterious character named Ronal.

Landau also shared one of the fondest memories he had on set with Winslet.

"One of my favorite memories was we had this circular tank, maybe 40 feet wide, with a big glass portal in it. I walked by one day and I see Kate Winslet walking on the bottom of the tank," Landau said. "She's walking towards me and sees me in the window, and she just waves, gets to the end of the wall, turns around, and walks all the way back."

The team worked underwater for the sequel. Cameron is an advocate of ocean conservation, and he combined two of his greatest love in the movie — ocean exploration and filmmaking. Most of the performances were captured in a 900,000-gallon tank.

"My colleagues within the production really lobbied heavily for us to do it 'dry for wet,' hanging people on wires," Cameron said. "I said, 'It's not going to work. It's not going to look real.' I even let them run a test, where we captured dry for wet, and then we captured in water, a crude level of our in-water capture. And it wasn't even close."

Cameron hoped that "Avatar" fans could still connect with the movie after 13 years. "Avatar" is the biggest movie of all time. However, Cameron isn't sure if the sequel will still make much due to the pandemic.

"The big issue is: Are we going to make any damn money?" Cameron said about the upcoming sequels. "Big, expensive films have got to make a lot of money. We're in a new world post-COVID, post-streaming. Maybe those [box office] numbers will never be seen again. Who knows? It's all a big roll of the dice."

"Avatar 2" stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Jamie Flatters and Winslet. Sigourney Weaver will return in a top-secret new role after her character died in the first movie.

"Avatar 2" will hit theaters on Dec. 16, 2022.