Avatar: The Way of Water VFX supervisor says film ‘couldn’t have been made’ before now-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro

The visual effects supervisor for Avatar: The Way of Water has said that it wouldn’t have been possible to make the sequel how they wanted to until now, after years of technological advancements.

It’s been 13 years since Avatar wowed audiences with its cutting-edge visuals and special effects back in 2009, and the team has broken new ground yet again for the 2022 release, which sees 3D back in cinemas again.

Weta FX senior visual effects supervisor for the movie, Eric Saindon, who also worked on the first Avatar, reflected on the things they were able to do this time around, including bigger crowds and the challenges of water.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk at the world premiere in London’s Leicester Square, he said: ‘It’s sort of like the first movie. Jim [James Cameron] always said we couldn’t have done this movie until this point, right? The technology has finally gotten to the point where you can do this movie.

‘The same could be said for this, number two. The new tech for capturing the characters and capturing the performances [for example]. The first movie had a lot of one-on-one with Jake [Sam Worthington] and Neytiri [Zoe Saldana]. This movie has crowds, and you have to feel for everyone in the crowd, you have to be able to understand the emotion of all the different characters.’

He then commented on the challenge the team had working with water, which is notoriously difficult to do and – unsurprisingly – a major component of Avatar: The Way of Water.

Avatar: The Way of Water presented the hardest of challenges to the visual effects team (Picture: AP)

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) with new characters Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) (Picture: 20th Century Studios)

He added: ‘Then you get into the visual effects tech – the water, the jungle, the really simple stuff to do! The hardest possible thing you can do in visual effects is water, and we had 2,500-odd shots of water in this movie…’

Saindon, who has been Oscar-nominated for his work on the first two Hobbit films, praised writer-director-producer Cameron for encouraging his teams to only give their best work.

‘We couldn’t have done anything harder, to be honest, but Jim pushes you to do that. He wants you to push further than you can and he wants every shot in the movie to tell the story and to understand the story, and to add to the story itself.’

In a film as ambitious as this, every shot will of course been analysed and lovingly crafted – but Saindon shared a spoiler-free reference to his favourite scene for fans to watch out for in the film.

Stars Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, writer-director James Cameron, Sigourney Weaver and Trinity Jo-Li Bliss at the world premiere on Tuesday night (Picture: Dave J Hogan/Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)

Saindon revealed that the Avatar sequel wouldn’t have been possible, technologically-speaking, until now (Picture: Lia Toby/Getty Images)

‘Without giving away too much of the story points, there’s a scene near the end and it’s the whole family and they’re up on a rock at the end. It’s not a happy scene but it’s a very emotional scene and it has all the characters and all of the emotion and all of the beauty of this movie all put together into one scene.’

He added that is ‘really stands out’ to him as the scene in Avatar: The Way of Water – in the making since 2017 – that ‘ties everything together’.

The Avatar sequel finds protagonist Jake Sully living with his newfound family formed on the planet of Pandora; he’s now a father to several kids with Neytiri, including the adopted 14-year-old Kiri, a new part played by returning actress Sigourney Weaver, 73.

Jake is now father to kids with Neytiri (Picture: 20th Century Studios/Disney)

Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na’vi race to protect their planet.

It’s the second film in a franchise of a possible five films overall, scheduled to be released every other year until December 2028.

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However, Cameron has said he is prepared to end the franchise early if audiences ‘don’t give a s**t’ anymore, wrapping up with the already-filmed third outing.

He’s also admitted that The Way of Water needs to be the third or fourth highest-grossing box office hit in history just to break even.

Avatar: The Way Of Water is released in cinemas on December 16.

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