Avatar 2 Horse Motion Capture Set Photos Tease Direhorse Return

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Set photos of horses doing mo-cap work tease the return of direhorses in Avatar 2. When it was released in 2009, James Cameron’s original Avatar became the highest-grossing movie in history. The film later lost that distinction however when it was surpassed by The Avengers: Endgame. But earlier in 2021, Avatar regained the box office crown thanks to a China re-release that pushed its all-time worldwide total to $2.814 billion.

The successful re-release of Avatar in China indeed proves the film still has a lot of avid fans (at least in that market). This is obviously good news as Cameron plans to release four Avatar sequels in the coming years. Like the original Avatar, the new films will push the boundaries of movie technology to new and amazing heights. One of the biggest attractions of Avatar 2 and the other planned sequels is the use of state-of-the-art underwater motion-capture technology to realize an undersea realm on the moon Pandora. Recently, Kate Winslet shared some of her own experiences shooting these underwater sequences, even boasting that she can hold her breath longer than Tom Cruise.

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Underwater motion-capture indeed sounds like a dangerous and impressive thing to undertake. But Avatar 2 also includes plenty of regular dry-land motion-capture, as producer Jon Landau conveyed when he shared some behind-the-scenes photos on Instagram. One of these pictures is especially interesting as it appears to tease the return of the original Avatar’s direhorses. See the images in the space below:

In Avatar lore the direhorse is a beast native to Pandora that looks more or less like a six-legged horse but is actually the size of an elephant. Na’vi are able to tame and ride the direhorses by connecting with them via neural linkups through their special appendages. In the original movie, Jake Sully experiences riding a direhorse in his Na’vi body, which leads to comedy as he struggles to control the creature. Eventually though Jake learns to be one with his direhorse, just as he learns to live in harmony with everyone and everything on Pandora.

It’s no surprise of course to learn that direhorses will likely be back for Avatar 2. Indeed, Cameron seems set on recreating the experience of the original movie as much as possible in the sequel. The exacting director even went so far as to threaten his writers when they began straying too far from the formula that made the first movie a hit. Cameron also elected to bring back the first movie's villain Quaritch even though he died.

Hopefully, Cameron's desire to precisely recapture the magic of Avatar won't result in a film that feels stale. The sequels will introduce new elements of course, including the underwater scenes. But thematically Avatar 2 and the other movies do sound similar to the first, as ecological issues will be front and center again. Of course, Cameron's argument could be if it isn't broke, don't fix it. There's no doubt Avatar won a lot of fans with its immersive world, and Cameron likely sees no reason to remake the wheel with his sequels.