During its presentation at the D23 Expo on Saturday, 20th Century Studios surprisingly revealed several scenes of Avatar: The Way of Water, James Cameron’s second installment of his epic sci-fi franchise. It also showed a new trailer.

The studio is aiming for the film’s December 16, 2022 theatrical release.

The scenes, which were in 3D, were shown for attendees on two huge screens in the main Anaheim Convention Center room where the studio’s presentations with Disney siblings Marvel and Lucasfilm were held.

D23 Expo 2022: Deadline’s Complete Coverage

One scene showed the Nav’i swimming underwater. Another is a youngster saying he wanted to be different than his father. Additionally, there were scenes of some kind of hostage situation, with combat in the woods at night. Another scene showed an emotional conversation between Sam Worthington’s and Zoe Saldana’s characters. And a tribal leader telling younger Nav’i that war is bad.

Following on from 2009’s Avatar, the script comes from Cameron and Josh Friedman, with Worthington and Saldana starring alongside Michelle Yeoh, Kate Winslet, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin and more.

Cameron joined the presentation today virtually from New Zealand, along with many of the cast, where he is finishing the film and also said he is working in the middle of a “pretty hectic” five-year production cycle on the second, third and fourth installments of the series. “It’s going great and the stuff coming in from Weta is looking spectacular,” Cameron told the crowd.

“I’m super excited to be finally finishing up movie 2,” he said. “I know everyone’s been waiting a long time. Hopefully, we’ll show something today and you can decide if it’s been worth it.”

Worthington and Saldana are parents in the new film. “The whole movie deals with protecting family. We’ve all gone through Covid and realized that love and being with family is paramount to what life is and it’s worth fighting for. We put that in the movie,” Worthington said.

“We remastered Avatar the first film for a whole new generation of movie fans who never got to see it in a movie theater,” Cameron said today. [A] 4K remaster, 48 frames per second. That will be the drumroll and remind people of the story.”