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If you’ve watched 13 years for the sequel but can’t make it to the theaters, you may want to know how to watch Avatar: The Way of Water at home online for free and when the movie will be available to stream.
Avatar: The Way of Water is the sequel to 2009’s Avatar, James Cameron’s sci-fi epic set in the mid-22nd century as humans colonize the world of Pandora, a thriving moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system, to mine the valuable mineral, unobtanium. The colonization threatens the existence of the local tribe, Na’vi, a special indigenous to Pandora who humans can communicate with via an avatar or a genetically engineered Na’vi body operated from the brain of a remote human. The movie went on to gross more than $2 billion and break various box office records, including becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time, a record it held for almost a decade before it was overtaken by Avengers: Endgame in 2019. The film was also nominated for nine Oscars at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Avatar: The Way of Water, which comes 13 years after the release of the first Avatar movie, is set more than a decade after the original Avatar and tells the story of Jake Sully, a former human who fell in love with a Na’vi named Neytiri, and his family, as Sully and Neytiri go to extreme lengths to keep themselves and each other safe. “I get quite emotional talking about it because what Jim ’s done [is] he’s made it about a family. And it’s powerful. Not only is it visually stunning and you’re seeing a part of Pandora that you’ve never seen before, all underwater, but it’s about what you do to protect your family. And I think after COVID everybody needs that kind of message. It’s about what you would do for those that you love. It’s amazing,” Sam Worthington, who plays Sully, told Jimmy Fallon in an interview on The Tonight Show in 2022.
So when can fans watch Avatar 2? Read on for how to watch Avatar: The Way of Water at home online for free and when Avatar 2 will be available to stream at no cost.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection.
When does Avatar: The Way of Water come out?
Avatar: The Way of Water premiered in theaters on December 16, 2022.
How to watch Avatar: The Way of Water at home online
How can fans watch Avatar: The Way of Water at home online? Though no official announcement has been made, Avatar: The Way of Water is expected to stream for free on Disney Plus (where the first Avatar movie also streams) around 45 days after its release date, which will be around January 30, 2023.
How much does Disney Plus cost?
How much does Disney Plus cost? Disney Plus offers two plans: a Basic ad-supported plan for $7.99 per month and a Premium no-ads plan for $10.99 per month. Along with no ads, the Premium plan also allows users to download content to watch off line.
Disney Plus is also included in The Disney Bundle, which offers three plans: Duo Basic for $9.99 per month (which includes ad-supported plans of Hulu and Disney Plus; Trio Basic for $12.99 per month (which includes ad-supported plans of Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus); and Trio Premium for $19.99 per month (which includes ad-free plans for Hulu, and Disney Plus and an ad-supported plan of ESPN Plus). The Duo Basic saves subscribers $5.99 per month from subscribing to Hulu and Disney Plus’ ad-supported plans individually; Trio Basic saves subscribers $12.98 per month from subscribing to Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus’ ad-supported plans individually; and Trio Premium saves subscribers $15.98 per month from subscribing to Hulu and Disney Plus’ no-ads plans and ESPN Plus’ ad-supported plan individually.
Disney Plus and ESPN Plus are also free with Hulu+ With Live TV, which costs $69.99 per month. Hulu+ With Live TV, which includes Disney Plus and ESPN Plus’ ad-supported plans, saves subscribers $17.98 from subscribing to the plans individually.
At a press conference in 2021, Disney’s former CEO Bob Chapek announced that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings—the first Disney and Marvel movie since the current health crisis to not stream on Disney Plus Premier Access at the same time as its theatrical release—would be available to stream 45 days after its premiere in theaters. “We value flexibility in being able to make last-minute calls,” Chapek said at the time. “Certainly when we planned we didn’t anticipate the resurgence of Covid.” Despite Chapek’s 45-day announcement, it took Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings—which premiered on September 3, 2021—total of 70 days to arrive on Disney Plus on November 12, 2021. It took the next Marvel movie Eternals—which premiered on November 5, 2021—68 days to arrive on Disney Plus on January 12, 2022.
While Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals took around 70 days to arrive on Disney Plus, Marvel’s more recent movies are more close to Chapek’s original 45-day timeline. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness became available to stream on Disney Plus on June 22, 2022—47 days after its theatrical premiere on May 6, 2022. Thor: Love & Thunder became available to stream on Disney Plus on September 8, 2022—62 days after its theatrical release on July 8, 2022.
How to watch Avatar: The Way of Water at home online for free
How can fans watch Avatar: The Way of Water online for free? Read on for our tips and tricks to stream Avatar 2 at no cost once it’s available to stream on Disney Plus.
If you’re a Verizon customer (or know someone who is), Verizon offers free Disney Plus subscription with its Unlimited plans (a.k.a. Get More Unlimited, Play More Unlimited, Verizon Plan Unlimited, Go Unlimited, Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited.) If you have one of these plans, you can sign-up for a free six-month Disney+ subscription (which saves you about $42.) Click here for Verizon’s FAQ on how to sign up for its free Disney+ subscription.
Verizon customers with Get More Unlimited and Play More Unlimited plans are also eligible for their Disney Bundle, which offers not only a free Disney Plus subscription for as long as you have your Verizon plan, but also free Hulu and ESPN+ subscriptions too, which saves viewers about $12.99 per month. Click here for Verizon’s FAQ on how to sign up for its Disney Bundle. So there you have it—a way to watch Disney Plus for free.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection.
Who’s in the Avatar: The Way of Water cast?
The Avatar: The Way of Water cast includes Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña, who reprised their roles as Jake Sully and Neytiri respectively from 2009’s Avatar. Director James Cameron, who directed the first Avatar, also returned as the director for Avatar: The Way of Water. See the full Avatar: The Way of Water cast below.
- Sam Worthington as Jake Sully
- Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri
- Sigourney Weaver as Kiri
- Kate Winslet as Ronal
- Cliff Curtis as Tonowari
- Jamie Flatters as Neteyam
- Britain Dalton as Lo’ak
- Chloe Coleman as Young Lo’ak.
- Trinity Jo-Li Bliss as Tuktirey (“Tuk”)
- Bailey Bass as Tsireya (“Reya”)
- Filip Geljo as Aonung
- Duane Evans Jr. as Rotxo
- CCH Pounder as Mo’at
- CJ Jones as a Metkayina interpreter.
- Jack Champion as Miles “Spider” Socorro
- Joel David Moore as Dr. Norm Spellman
- Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel
In an interview with Women’s Wear Daily in 2022, Saldana opened up about what it’s like to return to the Avatar franchise more than a decade after the original movie. “‘Avatar,’ it’s just my baby. It’s everybody’s baby. And to see this baby now being a teenager, like a young adult and getting to share it with the world is just…I felt like this day would never come and it’s finally here,” she said. She continued, “The reintroduction is also the refreshing of it. The rejuvenation of it is also very exciting. Look, I’m not aiming to get the same results that we got in the first one because that was a surprise. That was a wonderful surprise. We were not expecting it. And the reception was just imaginably beautiful. Obviously I’m hoping for Avatar 2: The Way of Water to have a very beautiful impact on people. But it’s not for the sake of breaking any records or making a ton of money. I think this saga is special. It was made with a lot of love and a lot of work. And it’s an experience worth having.”
She also reflected how the franchise has changed her life. “In terms of the way that I approach work, I seem to have gone back to the way I started, which is just to give 120 percent and do the homework and go to bed early and focus on my work. But after Avatar, when you’re young and all of the time you have, the opportunity to travel and to go to lavish dinners and wear beautiful outfits and the nightlife became very attractive,” she said. “It was a lot of working hard and a lot of [playing] hard that sometimes got in the way of me feeling fully, fully proud of the work I was doing — because I did the work. And now that I’m a little older and I would like to consider myself a little wiser, it’s going back to that [feeling] of having those healthy boundaries for myself of ‘go to bed early, really work. I know you’re tired. I know you really want to go out and go with your kids and just say, ‘Fuck my rehearsal and fuck my practice and fuck this session.‘ But I don’t. I still manage to focus on family life and also focus on my work. And I feel good.”
Saldana, who also stars as Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, also told Women’s Wear Daily about how she felt “stuck” in the genre. “I feel that for the last 10 years of my life, I’ve been just stuck. I felt stuck doing these franchises,” she said. “I’m very grateful for the opportunities that they provided, from collaborating with amazing directors and getting to meet cast members that I consider friends and getting to play a role that fans, especially children, love. But it also meant that I felt artistically stuck in my craft of not being able to expand or grow or challenge myself by playing different sorts of genres and different roles. So this is something that I wanted to do for a very long time. And wrestling, too, with this pressure that society puts on women that your youth is gone as soon as you have children and you go into your 40s.” She continued, “But today, now that I’m 44, I’ve been able to have these opportunities, and I took control over my aging and I took control over my voice and how I consider myself as a woman. And I’m so happy that I’m able to collaborate with filmmakers and producers and people in this industry that want that for women, that want women to be ageless and who don’t fetishize women’s youth. And so it’s interesting. It’s really interesting.”
Will there be an Avatar 3?
Will there be an Avatar 3? The answer is yes. As of writing this, there are three more Avatar movies planned after Avatar: The Way of Water. Avatar 3, which is planned for December 20, 2024; Avatar 4, which is planned for December 18, 2026; and Avatar 5, which is planned for December 22, 2028. Avatar 3 and 4 will also be directed by James Cameron. Cameron will also co-write the screenplay for all three sequels. Cameron also revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2022 that he was interested in making Avatar 6 and Avatar 7 if there was demand.
Avatar 3—which was originally planned to be released in 2015 but was delayed due to the need for more advanced filming technology—was filmed at the same time as Avatar: The Way of Water from September 2017 to December 2020 in New Zealand after production was paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña, who reprised their roles as Jake Sully and Neytiri in Avatar 3, the movie also stars actors like Edie Falco, Michelle Yeoh, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, Brendan Cowell and Jermaine Clement.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight in 2019, Cameron responded to rumors that Avatar 3 will be titled either: Avatar: The Seed Bearer, Avatar: The Tulkun Rider or Avatar: The Quest for Eywa. “I can neither confirm nor deny,” he said. “All right, here’s what I’ll tell ya. Those titles are among titles that are in consideration. And no final decisions have been made yet.” Though there are five Avatar movies planned, Cameron also told Total Film magazine in 2022 that he’s prepared to end the franchise after three Avatar movies if they underperform at the box office. “The market could be telling us we’re done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning: ‘OK, let’s complete the story within movie three, and not go on endlessly,’ if it’s just not profitable,” Cameron said. “We’re in a different world now than we were when I wrote this stuff, even,” the filmmaker continued. “It’s the one-two punch — the pandemic and streaming. Or, conversely, maybe we’ll remind people what going to the theatre is all about. This film definitely does that. The question is: how many people give a shit now?”
Cameron also told Empire magazine in 2022 that he may not direct Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 if they are made. “The ‘Avatar’ films themselves are kind of all-consuming,” Cameron said “I’ve got some other things I’m developing as well that are exciting. I think eventually over time — I don’t know if that’s after three or after four — I’ll want to pass the baton to a director that I trust to take over, so I can go do some other stuff that I’m also interested in. Or maybe not. I don’t know.” Cameron continued, “Movie 4 is a corker. It’s a motherfucker. I actually hope I get to make it. But it depends on market force. Three is in the can so it’s coming out regardless. I really hope that we get to make 4 and 5 because it’s one big story, ultimately.”
Avatar: The Way of Water is expected to stream on Disney Plus around January 30, 2022. Here’s how to subscribe for free.
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