The original Avatar was built on the fantastical sights and sounds of a lush forest planet full of colorful cat-people who rode on dragons, but other than the familiar story of mean military people trying to destroy wildlife, it was all a little hard to follow. Why are we supposed to care about these people and these aliens and this battle for—sigh—unobtanium? Well, it looks like Avatar 2 is going to work a little harder to connect with audiences by tackling an experience that is much more universal than riding on dragons or defending your homeland from the space military. In an appearance on the Empire podcast (via /Film), director James Cameron teased that there’s a “three-page argument scene” between Sam Worthington’s Jake and Zoe Saldana’s Neytiri that he describes as a “marital dispute” that is “very critical to the storyline.” In a fun and relatable touch, though, it was all filmed “from the point of view of the eight-year-old hiding under the structure and peeking in.”
Cameron also noted that he has a better handle on what Worthington brings to his character now after making the first movie all of those years ago, saying he now knows “how to write the Jake character going forward”—which we’re going to assume is not a slight on the first movie or the particular acting style that Worthington is known for. He doesn’t give any concrete hints, but he implies that Worthington will appear in all five Avatar movies and that his character will “go to some dark places” as the series goes on.
Avatar 2 will supposedly come out on December 18, 2020, but we’ll believe that when we see it.