Avatar 2 Crabsuit vehicle revealed in new concept art

While the long-gestating Avatar 2 was recently moved to a Covid-delayed release in December 2022, the sequel to the 3D-reviving 2009 blockbuster now continues its New Zealand production while teasing the occasional tidbits.

The latest such update comes in the form of a substantive look at a new vehicle that the energy-coveting Resources Development Administration (RDA) will utilise in the film.

The official Avatar Twitter account posted a set of concept art images of an RDA vehicle called the Crabsuit. Officially described as “a human driven multifunction submersible,” the underwater walker will be one of several new vehicles seen in not just Avatar 2, but its three planned subsequent follow-ups, all the way to Avatar 5.

The Crabsuit mimics innate underwater swimming and walking functionality of eponymous crustacean species.

Avatar 2 will continue the story of the gone-native RDA soldier, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who has shed his paralysed human form to permanently exist in a Na’vi avatar alongside mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and now — 13 years after the first film — has kids in tow. Thus, the Crabsuit is an ominous reveal for the Sully family.

Pixar reveals new original film Luca

Pixar reveals first details about Luca, a film set in the Italian Riviera that is scheduled for summer 2021.

“This is a deeply personal story for me, not only because it’s set on the Italian Riviera where I grew up, but because at the core of this film is a celebration of friendship,” director Enrico Casarosa said in a statement. “Core friendships often set the course of who we want to become and it is those bonds that are at the heart of our story in Luca. So, in addition to the beauty and charm of the Italian seaside, our film will feature an unforgettable summer adventure that will fundamentally change Luca.”

The setup for Luca is that its title character is a young boy living off the Italian coast. It is there he shares adventures with a newfound best friend who has a dark secret: this friend is not actually fully human, but a sea monster from another world just below the water’s surface. This secret may even come to tear their friendship asunder.

The premise sounds oddly like an imaginative reworking of The Little Mermaid but told from the human’s perspective. Pixar announced that the film arrives in June 2021.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 22nd, 2020