As big as Avatar: The Way of Water was last year, James Cameron wants to go even bigger with the upcoming sequels. The director has repeatedly said that the next four installments in his blockbuster franchise will visit unseen corners of Pandora’s surface while also introducing the new clans of Na’vi that reside there. But despite the films’ tendency to be stuffed to the gills, a number of Cameron’s ideas might not find their way onto the big screen. Thankfully, this is where other mediums come into play. In a recent chat with ScreenRant, producer Jon Landau teased how new graphic novel and video game projects will feature elements of Avatar lore not found in the movies.
Other than the films, one of the biggest Avatar projects on the horizon is Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, an upcoming open-world video game from Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment. The game was announced all the way back in 2017. But last we heard, the title might finally hit stores sometime in the next few months. And Landau during the interview, Landau confirmed where it fits on the Avatar timeline. Similarly, Landau discussed the script that Cameron wrote (dubbed “Avatar 1.5”) for Sam Worthington (Jake Sully) and Zoe Saldaña (Neytiri) to fill them in on what happened to their characters between Avatar and The Way of Water. During production on the latter, this was for Worthington and Saldaña’s eyes only. But when asked if fans could somehow see this story unfold, Landau suggested comics were the way to go.
“Graphic novel, maybe,” said Landau. “We want to do some stories in the gap years for sure with Dark Horse. Our Ubisoft game takes place a little bit before we come back. So we’re using ancillary opportunities to continue to build out the cannon. Anything we do, we want to say that’s not a standalone that lives in the lore of Avatar.”
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Landau also hinted that Frontiers of Pandora will bring in new Na’vi tribes and locations for players to interact with.
“Our Ubisoft video game we go to a whole different section of Pandora with all different clans,” continued Landau. “So you’ll get to see that too.”
The Avatar series already has a long-standing relationship with Dark Horse. Since 2019, the company has published a number of comic book tie-ins, including Tsu’tey’s Path, The Next Shadow, and Adapt or Die. Most recently, they released Avatar: The High Ground, which adapts Cameron’s earlier draft of The Way of Water screenplay in comic book form.
Meanwhile, Ubisoft still hasn’t announced a release date for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. But the game is expected to arrive on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC sometime during the 2023–2024 fiscal year, meaning no later than March 2024.
What do you think of the Avatar franchise’s plans to expand? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Avatar: The High Ground Volume 1
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