Avatar: The Way of Water’s latest trailer is a wet and wild prelude to war

A medium shot of a blue humanoid man gripping the back of an alien animal as it flies through the night sky. In the background, you can see an out of focus moonlit sky.

Jake Sully riding on the back of one of Pandora’s fantastical animals. | 20th Century Studios

The Na’vi of James Cameron’s Avatar movies are a peaceful, nature-loving people who live in harmony with most all of the creatures that live and thrive on the planet Pandora. But in the latest trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water, the Na’vi’s spiritual reverence for their world comes with a side of militant readiness as their people prepare to go to war to protect their homes.

Avatar: The Way of Water’s new trailer features a bevy of gorgeous new shots from the film that showcase just how central Pandora’s oceans and aquatic life will be to its story of how Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have started a family in the years following the first Avatar.

Throughout the trailer, you can see brief glimpses of their son...