With the premiere ofAvatar: The Way of Waterjust over the horizon, the film’s stars have been travelling around the world to attend various events celebrating the film. When the film’s cast descended on Los Angeles to attend the official United States premiere of the film, Joel David Moore, who plays Norm Spellman, comparedAvatartoThe Way of Water.Avatar: The Way of Waterfeatures a diverse cast of characters.ThoughAvataris known for its motion capture performances, plenty of human characters are present in the film. Moore’s Norm is one of the last remaining humans on Pandora. At the end of the previous movie, most humans were forced off-world, with a select few being allowed to stay behind. Norm was a scientist involved in the Avatar program, and though he piloted an Avatar, it was killed during the battle at the end of the first movie.RELATED:James Cameron’s Avatar 4 Script Got Zero Studio Notes From ExecutivesIn an interview withVariety, however, Moore clarified that the first film is not strictly necessary viewing material to enjoy the story told inAvatar: The Way of Water. During the interview, a reporter asked if the context of the first film is needed to understand the sequel. Moore responded by saying, “Like any good filmmaker making a sequel, in the first four minutes, you’re gonna understand what you need to understand.”
Moore went so far as to say that the audience couldwatch the trailer for the firstAvatarand still understand what the sequel was about. However, he did note that he wouldn’t recommend doing that. He stated that both films are their own self-contained stories but did extoll the virtues of watching the first film regardless.
James Cameron previously revealed thatAvatar: The Way of Watertook so longto hit theaters because he was spending a lot of time working on the finer details of the project. It’s no surprise that he would craft a self-contained story since it’s been 13 years since the original came out, but ignoring the first film in favor of the second would probably mean that the viewer would miss a lot of callbacks and character motivations.
For instance, Stephen Lang has explained hischaracter’s return inAvatar: The Way of Wateris a pretty big deal for that character’s arc. Without having seen the first film, a viewer probably wouldn’t be as surprised as they normally would be - to a new viewer, this is simply a new character. To someone who’s seen the first film, however, the character’s return from the dead would be fairly shocking.
