Avatar's Zoe Saldana Saw The Rerelease As Way To Prepare For The Sequel
After 13 years of development, audiences finally returned to the world of Pandora with James Cameron's "Avatar: The Way of Water." The long-awaited sequel featured the return of franchise staples Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and Stephen Lang as Jake, Neytiri, and Quaritch, respectively. It also introduced a slew of new characters with Jake and Neytiri's children, the Metkayina tribe, and many more that could play meaningful roles in future sequels.
For the new cast members, preparing for "The Way of Water" was like any other project, besides training to hold their breaths underwater for minutes at a time. However, the returning actors had the difficult task of channeling the characters they played nearly a decade before. Cameron also had to figure out how to get audiences reinvested into the "Avatar" world, a place they hadn't experienced in 13 years.
Thankfully, Disney rereleased the first "Avatar" for a quick theatrical run before "The Way of Water" hit theaters, reminding everyone why he holds the number one spot as the highest-grossing movie of all time. The rerelease added another $30 million to the first movie's box-office total, proving that even after a decade, audiences still love "Avatar." Saldana understood Cameron's vision for the rerelease, believing it was the best way to prepare everyone for the sequel.
Saldana thinks the Avatar rerelease was a celebration of what's to come
As many couples do, or at least on-screen couples, Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington attended numerous press events together to promote the "Avatar" movies. Before the release of "Avatar: The Way of Water," the two actors sat down with Complex and received questions about the "Avatar" rerelease. While Worthington focused on the technical aspects of the film, including the improved sound and visuals, Saldana shifted the topic to the cultural side of it.
"So yeah, it is prepping us," the actress said. "It's giving us an opportunity to celebrate something that was deeply remarkable and groundbreaking and prepping us also for the future of what's to come in 'Avatar: The Way of Water.' And remember, too, it's been 12, 13 years since the release of 'Avatar.' So there is a whole generation that was either too young to experience Avatar." Worthington said many audience members weren't alive when the first movie premiered, and Saldana continued. "Or not born yet! So, now it gives us an even bigger opportunity to create new fans, even within a generational family, multi-generational in a family. And that's quite exciting."
It looks like the "Avatar" rerelease paid off for James Cameron and the rest of the "Avatar" crew. Not only did it add more money on top of the movie's original box office numbers, but it perfectly primed audiences for "The Way of Water." The sequel, proving once again that people really love the tall blue natives of Pandora, skyrocketed into the top 4 highest-grossing films of all time, dethroning both Marvel and "Star Wars" in the process.