It’s finally happening; 13 years after James Cameron first wowed us with the wonders of Pandora in 2009’s Avatar, the film’s long-awaited sequel, the equally dazzling Avatar: The Way of Water, is due for its cinematic debut in just over a month from now.
Following yet another plight endured by the franchise’s premier alien race, the Na’vi, The Way of Water looks to be a moving yet ferocious portrait of family, and the lengths that one will go to in order to protect it. And with harrowing threats making themselves known at every turn, not least of which being a resurrected RDA, Jake Sully will undoubtedly find himself at the very extremes of those lengths.
The Way of Water looks to be introducing a myriad of brand-new faces to the franchise, most notably in the form of Sully and Neytiri’s many children. It’s clear that the world we were introduced to in Avatar has been subject to the passage of time, but just how much time has passed since The Way of Water‘s predecessor?
Evidently, it looks like the 13 years that have passed in our world since Avatar‘s release translate almost directly to those in Pandora as well; the official film synopsis from 20th Century Studios reads “Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family…”
So, quite plainly, we know that at least ten years have passed since the events of Avatar, and it’s likely that that number is slightly higher; the oldest biological child of Sully and Neytiri, Neteyam, will be portrayed by the 22-year-old Jamie Flatters, so it stands to reason that Neteyam is well into his teenage years at the very least. Thus, we can probably put the length of the timeskip between the two films at anywhere from 13 to 17 years.
Of course, we also know that the 73-year-old Sigourney Weaver will be portraying Kiri (pictured above), the adopted teenage daughter of the two aforementioned parents, so who’s to say?
Avatar: The Way of Water will release to theaters on Dec. 16.