Avatar: The Way of Water lands on Disney Plus next week

Ah, Avatar 2. People might’ve thought it’d never happen, but it eventually did. After years of development, multiple delays and the sale of production company 20th Century Fox to Disney, there were some solid reasons to doubt. But those doubts clearly pale when stacked next to the Scrooge McDuck mountain of money the original film made. I’m talking $2.9 billion at the global box office. Yeah.

Avatar 2 would eventually go on to be called Avatar: The Way of Water. And while that edges it even closer to Avatar: The Last Airbender territory, Avatar 2 has finally found a streaming home after being available for digital rental and purchase since its theatrical release.

I may have spoiled the wind-up in the intro, but it should come as no surprise that the new owner of 20th Century Fox is also the home of Avatar: The Way of Water. Namely, Disney Plus. The original Avatar has been on Disney Plus for a while now, and you’ll be able to watch the first and second movies back-to-back from June. That’s assuming you have a spare six hours to get through the two-hour-and-42-minute runtime of Avatar and the three-hour-and-12-minute running time of Avatar: The Way of Water.

There was no Disney Plus trial at the time of writing, so there’s no cheeky free viewing option. Disney Plus costs $13.99 per month or $139.99 for a year for the standard plan, which works out to around 10 months instead of 12.

Avatar: The Way of Water hit cinemas in Australia on 15 December 2022 and became the third highest-grossing movie of all time, raking in just shy of $3.5 billion Australian dollars. The Avatar sequel landed on digital purchase/rental stores on 28 March 2023, and it’s poised to hit Disney Plus on 7 June 2023.

Most of the cast of Avatar returns for the sequel, including Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang. They’re joined by newcomers Cliff Curtis, Kate Winslet and a range of actors to fill out the roles of younger characters. Set more than a decade after the events of Avatar, The Way of Water follows the plight of Jake (Worthington), Neytiri (Saldaña) and their fledgling family as an old foe returns to threaten their peaceful existence.

James Cameron is no stranger to sequel escalation, with two of the greatest sequels ever made: Terminator 2 and Aliens. While Avatar: The Way of Water doesn’t hit the lofty heights of those gilded all-time sequels, it offers a worthy follow-up to Avatar. It may wallow in the middle with too much character juggling, but the underwater sequences are particularly amazing and the set pieces are very entertaining.

Disney+ is the premiere streaming service from the media juggernaut. It released in late 2019 and hit the ground running with popular original series like The Mandalorian and Wandavision, and has continued to pump out originals from its growing portfolio of franchises. After Disney’s acquisition of Fox, Disney+ Star was added to the service, increasing the amount of more mature outings on the service from Fox’s range of properties (Alien, Predator, Die Hard etc.)

Disney Plus starts at $13.99 per month for the standard plan. This cheaper option lets you stream in up to HD quality in up to two places at once. The more expensive premium plan doubles that and upgrades the resolution to 4K.

Here’s how Disney+ compares to other Australian streaming services: