Avatar 5 will be headed to planet Earth, producer Jon Landau has confirmed. Much of the franchise takes place on the planet Pandora, a beautiful ecosystem that houses precious unobtainium – which, in the first movie, the villainous RDA, or Resources Development Administration, wants to get its hands on.
"In movie five there is a section of the story where we go to Earth. And we go to it to open people's eyes, open Neytiri's eyes, to what exists on Earth," Landau told io9. Neytiri is one of the Na'vi and is played by Zoe Saldaña.
"Earth is not just represented by the RDA," Landau added. "Just like you're defined by the choices you make in life, not all humans are bad. Not all Na'vi are good. And that's the case here on Earth. And we want to expose Neytiri to that."
Avatar: The Way of Water will feature the return of RDA villain Colonel Miles Quaritch, played by Stephen Lang. The catch is, he died in the first movie – and Lang has explained just how he's returning to wreak more havoc in the sequel, revealing that Quaritch's memories have been embedded in an Avatar body. "Quaritch's DNA had been banked," Lang told SFX Magazine, "and obviously in the process of building the Avatar, he goes through the same thing that they did with Jake or with Grace Augustine, to become Na'vi. But there's no going back for him, because he's dead and there's no body to go back to."
First reactions to The Way of Water have already begun pouring in, and they're overwhelmingly positive. There's just a little while longer to wait for the highly anticipated sequel, too: the film arrives in theaters this December 16. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates for everything else there is to get excited about.
