James Cameron shot Avatar sequels one after the other so the teenage actors wouldn't age like the kids in 'Stranger Things'

Although it took 13 years to wait for a sequel to 2009's 'Avatar', the gap between 'The Way of Water' and its sequels should be much shorter, with the third film and part of the fourth to be shot at the time said as the recent blockbuster. In an interview with , Cameron revealed why: The film's child actors will therefore always look like children.

In the film, several child and teen actors play the lead characters of Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri's (Zoe Saldana) children and other teens growing up on the planet Pandora. For example, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss was 7 years old when she was cast as the youngest child Tuk, while Jack Champion was 12 when he was cast as Spider, a human child whom Jake and his family s occupy; the two are now 13 and 18 respectively. Cameron said shooting the films at the same time helps ensure that the children, who are very important to the narrative, since Champion in particular "grow up like a weed" during production.
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Cameron compared the approach of the Netflix series 'Stranger Things', which had long breaks between seasons, and as a result saw the young cast age significantly between the 2016 premiere and 'Stranger Things'. 4" of this year.< /p>
"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," Cameron says. “You know, I love the show. It's okay, let's suspend disbelief. We love the characters, but, you know."

In addition to the upcoming third and fourth films, which were filmed during a 2017 shoot in New Zealand, a fifth "Avatar" film is also in development at Disney. In an interview with IndieWire ahead of the release of "Way of Water," Cameron attributed the gap between the original film and its follow-up to the need to "future-proof" sequels, and said future films would move at a steady pace. faster. .

"We officially began the scriptwriting process in the summer of 2013," Cameron said. “The next few years were spent writing four movies in parallel, designing every creature, every character, every vehicle, every cityscape, every biome, every habitat across those four movies. That same period was also for R&D and technology [development] to really prepare us for the future through all this work of movies, because I'd rather stop once for a big chunk and prepare everything and then work with a kind of rhythmic cadence forward from where we don't have to stop and re-gear every step of the way.”

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Although it took 13 years to wait for a sequel to 2009's 'Avatar', the gap between 'The Way of Water' and its sequels should be much shorter, with the third film and part of the fourth to be shot at the time said as the recent blockbuster. In an interview with , Cameron revealed why: The film's child actors will therefore always look like children.

In the film, several child and teen actors play the lead characters of Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri's (Zoe Saldana) children and other teens growing up on the planet Pandora. For example, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss was 7 years old when she was cast as the youngest child Tuk, while Jack Champion was 12 when he was cast as Spider, a human child whom Jake and his family s occupy; the two are now 13 and 18 respectively. Cameron said shooting the films at the same time helps ensure that the children, who are very important to the narrative, since Champion in particular "grow up like a weed" during production.

Related Related

Cameron compared the approach of the Netflix series 'Stranger Things', which had long breaks between seasons, and as a result saw the young cast age significantly between the 2016 premiere and 'Stranger Things'. 4" of this year.< /p>

"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," Cameron says. “You know, I love the show. It's okay, let's suspend disbelief. We love the characters, but, you know."

In addition to the upcoming third and fourth films, which were filmed during a 2017 shoot in New Zealand, a fifth "Avatar" film is also in development at Disney. In an interview with IndieWire ahead of the release of "Way of Water," Cameron attributed the gap between the original film and its follow-up to the need to "future-proof" sequels, and said future films would move at a steady pace. faster. .

"We officially began the scriptwriting process in the summer of 2013," Cameron said. “The next few years were spent writing four movies in parallel, designing every creature, every character, every vehicle, every cityscape, every biome, every habitat across those four movies. That same period was also for R&D and technology [development] to really prepare us for the future through all this work of movies, because I'd rather stop once for a big chunk and prepare everything and then work with a kind of rhythmic cadence forward from where we don't have to stop and re-gear every step of the way.”