Cameron’s Clues: Which Avatar Scenes Point to Sequel?

Entertainment Weekly is devoting its newest cover story to Avatar, and what appears to be a slew of old news about a likely Avatar sequel. Just as James Cameron told Techland last month, he told EW that he’s already come up with ideas for not one but at least two sequels. Quoting Cameron’s sequel thoughts from our previous Techland story:

By now, the man must be exhausted, right? Wrong. Before I knew it, Cameron was even talking sequels: “Hell yeah, I’d be interested. You can speculate about budgets here and how much it will take to turn a profit, but the truth will be told if there’s no talk of a sequel. Then you’ll know we didn’t make money. But yeah, there’s two, possibly even three films…read more

Now I haven’t yet had a chance to read the full EW piece, but in this teaser blurb posted over at the magazine’s web site, the one new tidbit seems to be Cameron’s mention of some omittable scenes that were left in Avatar only because they help set up a sequel. That’s a curious revelation, and it left me thinking back to the film, and what superfluous scenes may play a role in Avatar 2.

Perhaps some of those shots of the other Na’vi clans spread out around Pandora? Or perhaps those sequences that show the sacred tree transferring one soul from a human body to a Na’vi body? Could that process work in reverse? (Read Techland’s Avatar review)

Most of the sequel talk I’ve heard has consisted of Cameron exploring the other moons surrounding this giant gas planet. Pandora is one moon, but there are several others he could explore. Here’s my big question: Would he introduce us then to a whole new set of characters? Or would some of the Na’vi on Pandora find their way to other moons? And how would they do that? They are a bow and arrow society, not a civilization that can make interstellar trips around their solar system.

In any case, Cameron has clearly approved this cover story, which means he wants the Avatar 2 speculation to begin in full. What would you want to see from a second trip to Pandora (or another moon)? Where do you think Cameron will take all this? Whatever he’s thinking now, given the fact that Avatar is well on its is trajectory to becoming the most lucrative film ever made, Avatar 2 seems less likely now than certain.

More at Techland: Check out our complete Avatar coverage

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crispy

Don’t ya’ll share the same office building as Entertainment Weekly? Can’t you go over there and knock some sense into someone? An Avatar cover 4 weeks after the movie premiered and containing the same info I’ve read everywhere else seems awfully late for the once-called TIME magazine of popular culture.

Anywho, I definitely see sequel potential in those other clans on Pandora. Wasn’t there a coastal clan? Given Cameron’s love of the deep sea, let’s see what’s under Pandora’s oceans!
tereglith

It’s possible that with a planet-wide internet, Eywa might produce an organic spaceship, a la E.T.’s flying turnip in “The Green Planet”, the E. T. sequel novel.
truevcu

^Or maybe we’re thinking in the wrong direction. Maybe the Na’vi originally came from one of the other moons…
guymont

After seeing the film multiple times, I’m also wondering if a reverse soul transfer (Na’vi to human) would come up in a sequel and maybe some visuals of the polluted Earth (it’s emphasized in the book guide)? Whatever Cameron does, I just hope the sequels won’t stretch out the story too much.
jongwk

1) The movie shows that there were other avatars in the base. Some of them were armed and standing guard along the Na’vi, watching the Humans board the shuttle at the end.

2) Maybe those other avatar pilots can do the same mind trick as Jake, but what happens with Norm and Max? The first one had his avatar killed, and for all we know Max doesn’t seem to be a pilot, just a (very) skilled neuroscientist.

3) We should not rule out the additional information in the official online resources. For example, it seems there was an automated factory inside the base, with blueprints to build most of the standard equipment needed by the colonists (presumably, the Na’vi could get a few technological clues from the remaining scientists).

4) Did we get to see if there was any kind of FTL communication with Earth? How fast does Earth learn of the events? Can RDA and Selfridge spin it?

5) Flux vortex, planetary neural network, the odd rock formations surrounding the tree of souls… What are the odds that Pandora has a few more secrets in stock? Perhaps the first Na’vi were not from Pandora itself, and bioengineered the whole planet? Speculation, I know, but still…
http://shakespeare1212.wordpress.com shakespeare1212

Not to give away a billion dollar idea, but how about Avatar meets Armageddon? The Navie love nature so much? and who wouldn’t love a world where rocks float in mid air. (Huh?) Anyway, what if a big old rock from outer space, an asteroid, came in and smashes Pandora hard. It just so happens that the humans are coming back, even more heavily armed to get the unumtanium (the name should have clued them in) when they see this asteroid coming. Getting their mineral is now pretty much a non-starter but they’d like to evacuate and help the Navie but how can you make a 10 foot blue giant trust you again, especially after,… well let’s just call it the prequel. Also, you got good sub-plots of a few stupid humans who stick around too long to get, (please just a few slivers of…..) but they can’t, and maybe they get blown up with the planet, maybe Jake’s son (baby blue) saves them and gets them on a ship at the last second. oo another cool sub-plot. Baby blue and his other young generation Navie, become enamored by the human’s tech, and they sneak off to play with it, much to the frustration of the “wiser” older Navie.