– UPDATED VERSION –
(May 12th 2022)

*ahem* … Kinda needless to say, but still… :

!!! SPOILERS AND THEORIES AHEAD !!!

 

With the teaser trailer of Avatar 2: The Way of Water first running before the new Doctor Strange movie in cinemas all over the world and now being officially let loose on the internet, I can finally dissect it frame by frame :D All of this is my interpretation and speculation (as well as a lot of me rambling), so take everything written here with the appropriate amount of grains of salt, hrh. Anyway, here goes my breakdown:

It’s ~13 years after the events of the first movie. Neytiri and Jake have three kids together, the eldest son Neteyam, the younger son Lo’ak and their daughter, Tuktirey, being the youngest. And there’s Javier “Spider” Socorro, their adoptive human son who was born on Pandora (Hell’s Gate) and lives among the Na’vi.

Confused about who is who yet? Don’t worry, here’s an in-depth post about the Sully kids: Clearing Up The Confusion About The Children – Avatar 2: The Way Of Water

 

For some reason (that smells suspiciously a lot like the RDA) they leave the rainforest and go to the realm of the Metkayina, a reef dwelling clan who’s evolutionary adapted to living in or near the water, with wider / broader limbs (bones / cartilage?) and tail for easier movement while in water, as well as smaller ears and green to blue eyes. They know and use the art of tattooing, which I (as a tattooist) just love, love, love! (No worries, I’ve written a humongous blog post just on the tattooing here: An excursion into the art of tattooing of the Na’vi / Metkayina in Avatar 2: The Way Of Water )

 

Anyway, let’s go scene by scene.

We get catapulted back on Pandora by accompanying Javier, Lo’ak, Kiri and what appears to be Tuktirey or some other young Na’vi kid at the Ayram Alusìng (floating mountains), probably (playfully) training for Iknimaya, mirroring a scene from the first movie, where we see Tsu’tey, Jake and other young hunters paying this breathtaking scenery a visit as well:

The teaser utilizes pulling up memories from Avatar 1 within the audience by mirroring of scenes from Avatar 1 with the following shot of Neytiri:

Which instantly reminded me of this scene from Avatar 1:

Next we see a group of Na’vi, very likely the Sully family, riding on their ikrans above a large body of water, or rather, the sea / an ocean. Maybe already in Metkayina territory or on their way there:

Why I think those are Jake, Lo’ak and so on in that order? Read this thourough analysis by our very own Ney: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LY8muGMHoMBKO2nb_cIlkYpLz3FmuhBZFZrEil5WSIU/

May I point out that I love to see some maritime life, at long last. Smaller groups of fish and some very big guys, even compared to the group of ikran-riders – those are very, very likely nalutsa.

The next shot shows us Jake, the second familiar face from Avatar 1:

He looks rather concerned or unsettled, as if weighed down by worry or sorrow. Maybe there was a fight (with Neytiri?), maybe someone died (Mo’at?), maybe they’re refugees now (on their way to the Metkayina). He’s definitely riding his ikran, sporting dreads (which I love, love, love as well, I’ve been drawing Na’vi with dreads since 2012, hrh!) and a leather vest.

The next scene shows us again the Sully family ikrans. The scenery shows us a shore lined with mangrove-like trees, which (if they’re anything like mangrove trees on Earth) can thrive in salty / briney water, which tells me, that this is the shore of the sea. If you look closely, you can see some Na’vi “tents” stretched in between the roots:

Mo’at is not among them, traveling to the Metkayina. Why not?

Another shot on ikran back in Metkayinan territory follows:

The group seems to arrive at the area where the Metkayina dwell, or at least a member of the Metkayina seems to be announcing their arrival:

We then dive into the sea, see even more fish (yay <3, fayoang!) and are introduced to one of the new main protagonists , Kiri:

She is of human descent, because she has 5 toes = 5 fingers (“human hands”), hairy “human” eyebrows, a narrower bridge of the nose compared to basically any Na’vi, but she is not one of Jake’s or Neytiri’s kids. So who the hell is Kiri, and is she somehow connected to Grace? Find out here: Clearing Up The Confusion About The Children – Avatar 2: The Way Of Water

The trailer then puts our asses back on the ground of reality and inside a (new) base of the RDA. Who read the comic “The Next Shadow” will know that the humans never (fully) left and the RDA would return, but they definitely seem to have used the past decade or so to bulk up their numbers and “fortresses”. We see spider bots being busy and a human in a mechanized exo-skeleton that puts them at eye-level with the two Avatars next to them. These two blue guys are Quaritch and Wainfleet. Yup, you read that right. However, more on them later.

We get a good look at what the humans have built in the past 13+ years, more of everything, basically bigger and “better”:

We also see Avatars sitting inside that new Samson-type helicopter, and yes, those are Quaritch and Wainfleet:

Back in the forest and with the Na’vi, we lay eyes on Lo’ak and Spider sneaking up on some Avatars who are very likely with the RDA:

The camera turns around, showing us Lo’ak and Kiri from the front, which likely means that in this scene the three of them (Spider, Lo’ak and Kiri) are on an adventure together:

This shot, too, reminded me of a shot of Lo’ak’s mother, Neytiri, from Avatar 1:

We’re then back to humans, uhm, I mean, Avatars. These two badasses are very clearly Miles Quaritch and Lyle Wainfleet and obviously still with the RDA. How they got (into) Avatar bodies after having died in Avatar 1 is one of the big mysteries here. I am very sure that Eywa played no role in it (hopefully, hrh), but that this is thanks to some human sorcery :P

Who are they sneaking up on, tho? Maybe Lo’ak, Spider and Kiri? Because in the next shot we see the three of them, ready to fight, while Lo’ak and Spider defend the unarmed Kiri:

This and the previous shot don’t seem to happen at the same time of day, because lighting and the color of the light.

It gets more peaceful again tho, when we see Kiri enjoying a ride underwater with an ilu:

The next shot gets very interesting. We see a group of young Na’vi, a mix of Omatikaya and Metkayina, exploring what appears to be a swotu (sacred place), indicated by the circle-like stone structures that stand for a place of high “flux vortex”, high energy, places where the Na’vi tend to be able to connect to and communicate with Eywa:

This place being sacred to the Metkayina is supported by info from Avatar.com, which says: “This area with its inverted arches – known as The Cove of the Ancestors – is a sacred location for the Metkayina Clan.”
Lo’ak is not visible in this shot. Maybe he had other stuff to do, or he is still to follow.

Speaking of Tsireya and Lo’ak, in the next shot we see them together with Neytiri (on the right) and Jake, who very apparently is about to lecture or even scold his son:

Could be that Tsireya and Lo’ak fall in love with each other, which causes some friction between the two clans (Omatikaya and Metkayina), especially since Tsireya seems to be the daughter of the Tsahìk (Ronal) of the Metkayina. (The outsider falling in love with the princess… Avatar 1 all over again, hrh :D)
It’s not unlikely that this is the reason Jake wants to scold him, because he himself is the Olo’eyktan of the Omatikaya, and friction between clans while the RDA is still around (and apparently stronger than ever)… eeeh, not the best situation for the Na’vi alltogether, is it?

OR… there’s another conflict involving these two young Na’vi. Maybe they attacked the RDA on their own, much like Silwanin (Neytiri’s deceased sister) and a couple of other young hunters did before Avatar 1 happened, and this caused the conflict between humans and Na’vi to escalate (again).

Or maybe Lo’ak’s parents just disapprove of his new friendship with a tulkun.

Love story or not, in the next shot we see (what appears to be) the Tsahìk of the Metkayina, namely Ronal, and she does not seem happy AT ALL, as if she is very distrusting or disproving of something (or someone) – or she just talked with someone and is contemplating how to feel and what to think:

Then we lay eyes on her daughter, Tsireya, again, but this time we get a way better look at her. She seems very unsettled / upset / unhappy. Maybe it’s something Lo’ak said to her, because yep, that’s him (hair and necklace give him away):

Meanwhile, Lo’ak is making new friends underwater:

Why I’m sure this is a tulkun? Read up on that here: The Tulkun Conundrum – Avatar 2: The Way Of Water

It gets ceremonial, when we witness the Metkayina holding some form of prayer or ritual – maybe even a birthing ritual? Because Ronal is obviously very pregnant:

We get more action when we see how Spider and Lo’ak (hair and armlet give him away) flee from an RDA facility by jumping through a hole into the sea:

They’re obviously running away from humans, while they’re being shot at. Maybe they’re running away from this guy:

Then it gets emotional, when we see Lo’ak being sad and or at least very upset:

Meanwhile we’ve been hearing Jake talking to us from the off about family. Right at this very word (“family”), we see his, or at least him with Lo’ak and Spider, while Kiri is looking at them:

I don’t think this shot and the one before of sad Lo’ak are from the same scene, tho. Yes, there’s smoke and sadness in both of them, but the light / time of day appears to be different.

A close up of Spider in Jake’s embrace follows:

It gets more dramatic again, when we witness how Neytiri and Tuktirey flee from a RDA-structure that’s being flooded:

In this scene we also get confirmation that the head next to sad Lo’ak a couple of shots back is indeed Neytiri’s:

The tension breaks again when we see Lo’ak hanging on to the tulkun we’ve seen earlier, being dragged by it through the water, enjoying life:

Then we get another (almost) full body shot of the leaders of the Metkayina: The Tsahìk called Ronal and the Olo’eyktan called Tonowari:

Only three shots left, guys :(( *sigh* … Well. (What are very clearly) Jake’s hands tug at a strip of leather, fastening the harness on the neck of an ikran, ilu or…

… this new and yet unknown beast of a flying fish:

Jake then finishes his line from the off – and it becomes clear that he’s been talking to Neytiri, who is very likely Tsahìk of the Omatikaya now (I wonder why – did Mo’at die?), judging from her new and pretty necklace. It also becomes clear that they are going through quite some turmoil, as a couple / mated pair or a family, and Jake tries to reassure and comfort her. Maybe even trying to stop her from leaving, or preventing their family or clan from breaking apart or succumbing to despair.

“I know one thing: Wherever we go… this family… is our fortress.”

“Awngari ketsran tsengne kivä… fìsoaia… lu txurtseng.”

---

Tse, ma frapo, this is it, this is the first teaser trailer for Avatar 2. I absolutely loved it and I can’t find a single bit in it which I don’t love. And to be very honest with you, this short teaser trailer already made me cry. Also the score / music for this trailer was just absolutely amazing, if the movie score is anything like it, I will just dissolve into a blobby mess of shivers and tears in the movie theater. I am sooooo looking forward to the next (teaser) trailer and even more the movie!

Related blog posts

Clearing Up The Confusion About The Children – Avatar 2: The Way Of Water

The Tulkun Conundrum – Avatar 2: The Way Of Water

An excursion into the art of tattooing of the Na’vi / Metkayina in Avatar 2: The Way Of Water

Also interesting:

This video compares the trailers for Avatar 1 and 2 side by side. Amazing how they line up perfectly. Said it before, will say it again: Coincidence is unknown to James Cameron!

Kelutral.org has a very well written breakdown of the trailer you might like:

https://www.kelutral.org/blog/avatar-the-way-of-water-teaser-breakdown

My prediction of the chain of events in Avatar 2

• Life for the Omatikaya is great so far, until…
• The Omatikaya get into direct conflict with the RDA: Lo’ak, Spider and Kiri getting cornered by humans / RDA Avatars, barely escaping
• The RDA follows them / seeks retribution
• Mo’at gets killed, the Sully family being devastated by that
• Great turmoil and pain within the Omatikaya clan, Jake tries to reassure Neytiri
• These events / further advances of the RDA forces them to flee their home in the rainforest
• They seek refuge with the reef dwelling Metkayina, how many members of the Omatikaya is unclear, likely just the Sully family (are they outcasts, is no other of the Omatikaya left?)
• At first things go kinda well between the clans, the kids of each clan befriending each other, enjoying life (Tsireya showing Neteyam, Kiri and Tuk around, while Lo’ak makes friends with a tulkun)
• Conflict between Omatikaya and Metkayina, likely because of Lo’ak (and Tsireya?) messing something up
• RDA following the Omatikaya to the realm of the Metkayina, forcing them to put their differences aside and working together
• Great battle combining Omatikaya and Metkayina forces against the RDA, with great losses on both sides
• Quaritch will surive, but my guess is Wainfleet dies (again)
• The Sully family sticks even closer together, having to face what’s to come in Avatar 3

Why I think Mo’at will die

Well… her muntxatan Eytukan died in Avatar 1, her dying in Avatar 2 would kinda fit. Both of them being reunited within Eywa, a lovely thought. Mo’at is old and will die eventually of old age while probably having not much interesting added anymore to the story until then anyway, so why not “use” her death and give it some more meaning by helping to create more opportunities for growth and character depth for the Sullys, making them and their story more interesting and us even more emotionally invested? Also, Neytiri seems to be(come) Tsahìk in Avatar 2, and Mo’at being deceased would make way for this.
Lo’ak and Neytiri being sad about someone injured or dead means they both have close relations and strong feelings for that person (Mo’at is Neytiri’s mother and Lo’ak’s grandmother). And while watching the video of both trailers being compared to each other, we see this: