Avatar: The Way of Water faced many delays in the past four years, in fact, it had occurred so many times that even one of the stars thought it had already premiered four years ago and flopped. In making up for the lost time, James Cameron had not only pitched 3 upcoming Avatar sequels, but had also already filmed some parts of Avatar 3.
Recently speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Cameron weighs in on why he had to shoot Avatar 3 in advance in lieu of the effect on the ages and appearances of supposed 12 to 14-year-old cast members that now look older than they were scripted to be. Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, who plays Jake Sully’s youngest child Tuk, was seven when she joined the Avatar sequel but is now 13. Jack Champion, who plays Spider, was 12 but is now 18. Check out Cameron’s full comment below:
“Otherwise, you get — and I love Stranger Things — but you get the Stranger Things effect where they’re supposed to still be in high school [but] they look like they’re 27. You know, I love the show. It’s okay, we’ll suspend disbelief. We like the characters, but, you know.”
To be fair, James Cameron has a point. Stranger Things always has huge gaps across its four seasons: Season 1 premiered in 2016, making a gap of 15.5 months to Season 2. Season 3 came after 20 months, which showed a wider age difference (as compared to when they were in Season 2), where they mostly hung out at Hawkins’ mall. And of course, even more so when Stranger Things Season 4 came 3 years later, where the cast had already matured way too far from their previous ages and because of the pandemic delaying the filming.
Unfortunately, since it’s an ongoing pandemic, it’s a necessary extra step to take for precaution and Cameron’s decision will go quite well for his ongoing Avatar franchise.
Avatar 3 is currently slated for release on December 20, 2024, and Stranger Things Season 5 will start filming for the finale in May 2023.
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