Avatar: The Way of Waterreturns to Pandora after 13 years, meaning there are plenty of new characters for the audience to meet. Among these new characters is Sigourney Weaver’s Kiri, a young Na’vi girl who’s been adopted by Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña). According to Weaver, to play the younger character and get into the mindset of a teenager, she returned to high school.
Avatar: The Way of Wateris set more than a decade afterAvatar.At the end of that film, humans were officially launched off of Pandora following a lengthy battle with the native inhabitants. They left behind numerous scars, however, including orphans and abandoned technology. Kiri was born in the aftermath, and she has no biological parents. James Cameron has alreadyjustifiedAvatar: The Way of Water’s runtimeby saying that the film focuses on emotions and character development more than the first did, and Kiri is a major fixture of the movie.
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In an official press conference forAvatar: The Way of Water,Weaver stated that she went back to high school to get back into the mindset of a teenager. “I love that I had the opportunity to play a real adolescent. There’s a big range of who an adolescent is between 12 and 15, and once I saw that I realized I can let Kiri come out—whoever she is—and combine her with who I was at 14," Weaver said. “It gave me so much to work with. And by the time I got there, I just got to enjoy leaving this shell behind and becoming this sometimes-brat.”
The movie brings back a few actors and actresses whose characters appeared to have died by the end ofAvatar.Stephen Lang’s character returnsinAvatar: The Way of Waterthrough the use of futuristic technologies. Basically, he’s a human/Na’vi hybrid - known as a Recombinant - that has the memories of the original Colonel Quaritch.
TheAvatarsequels are reportedly set to be quite an emotional affair. According to Cameron,hisAvatar 4script got zero notes from executives, and he seemed excited about where the story is headed. Kiri is probably set to play a pretty big role moving forward, as the next generation of Sully children will be carrying the story forward in a big way.
Cameron has also said that the sequels will be cancelledifAvatar: The Way of Waterfails.Avatar 3is pretty much guaranteed,but the films are expensive to make. ShouldAvatar 2underperform, there may not be as many as Cameron would like.
