After over a decade of waiting, moviegoing audiences have finally been able to return to the world of Pandora with James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water. The blockbuster has been making a ton of money at the box office, and fans are already clamoring for future sequels. And Avatar 2’s writer recently revealed the “space battle” that got cut from the blockbuster’s script. Cue the FOMO for moviegoers who saw the second movie in theaters.
Avatar: The Way of Water picked up twelve years after the events of James Cameron’s record-breaking original movie, focusing on Jake and Neytiri’s growing family. During that time we also met the Metkayina reef people, and watched as two Na’vi families fought off the RDA. But it turns out that another battle sequence altogether was considered, as writer Rick Jaffa told EW during a recent interview:
There was one idea of a space battle with Na’vi. That idea got a lot of traction, and we talked a lot about it. We were struggling, though. How would that work with the story that we're telling? Jim said, 'Well, give me a few weeks.' He went off and he wrote an entire script. And, by the way, a brilliant script. … At the end of the day, the whole script got thrown out because it just didn't really work with the story we were telling.
Well, now I’m curious about what we missed. Avatar: The Way of Water clocked in at a whopping 192 minutes, but it turns out that we could have been treated to some space battle. I have to wonder how this all might have gone down, and exactly what tools the Na’vi would use to battle the RDA in space. Are there giant space banshees? Only time will tell.
Rick Jaffa’s comments to EW help to peel back the curtain on the writing process of Avatar: The Way of Water, which was a collaboration between himself, co-writer Amanda Silver and James Cameron himself. And it sounds like the latter filmmaker crafted a draft that included an epic space battle which never came to life. But with three more movies seemingly coming over the next few years, perhaps Cameron and company will be able to use this concept for another installment.
James Cameron has a five-movie vision for the Avatar franchise, so a number of ideas have no doubt been scrapped throughout the filmmaking process. Avatar 3 has already been filmed, and he’s teased that it will include inter-Na’vi conflict and a new tribe known as the Ash people. But other than that not much is known about its contents. Unfortunately, we’re back to waiting, as the next chapter isn’t expected to hit theaters until Chistmas 2024.
Avatar: The Way of Water is still in theaters now, and continuing to make money at the box office. Avatar 3 will follow suit December 20th, 2024. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
