April 27 (UPI) -- After years of suspense, Disney on Wednesday revealed the first teaser trailer for director James Cameron's Avatar sequel and unveiled the movie's official title at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.
The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and IGN confirmed that Cameron's follow-up to the 2009 blockbuster will be called Avatar: The Way of Water. A short teaser trailer also was shown to the audience in Caesars Palace's Colosseum.
"We need to make sure [audiences] have an experience they can't get anywhere else, and that needs to be exclusively in theaters," producer Jon Landau said when introducing the teaser trailer, which will be released next week exclusively in theaters ahead of Disney and Marvel's Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
Landau said each of the four planned sequels -- the first, The Way of Water, is set for a Dec. 16 release in North America -- will center on Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington, Neytiri, portrayed by Zoe Saldaña, and their family. Each will be a standalone film that "together are an even greater connected epic saga."
Cameron also made a brief appearance at the convention in the form of a pre-recorded message. He expressed his excitement for the world to see Avatar: The Way of Water and teased that the team has "set out once again to push the limits of what cinema can do."
In a story set more than a decade after the events of the original film, the footage in the trailer focused on Jake and Neytiri and included breathtaking shots of Pandora, according to reports. The teaser featured lots of underwater footage and showed off new whale-like creatures.
The Avatar 2 trailer will go online a week after its exclusive run in theaters.
In addition, it was announced that a remastered version of the original Avatar will be released in theaters on Sept. 23, 2022. According to Cameron, the visual effects will be even more realistic.
Cameron's first Avatar film quickly became the top-grossing film of all time at the worldwide box office, generating more than $2.8 billion. The groundbreaking movie was credited with ushering in the digital 3D era and introducing new production tools and techniques.
