Sigourney Weaver says the aquatic humanoid felines of Avatar 2 are based on James Cameron's family

After a decade of hell, we sad, movie-going audiences will finally be invited back to Pandora. James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel to Avatar, entitled Avatar: The Way Of Water, hits theaters on December 16. While Cameron already whet our appetites with a special re-release of the original, complete with several minutes of stellar footage from Way Of Water, he’s been keeping the plot out of the papers. Thankfully, there’s Sigourney Weaver, who cares not for your mystery boxes or teases. Speaking at a Variety screening of her new film, The Good House, Weaver said that her upcoming movie about blue cat people that live under the sea is based on James Cameron’s family.

“The story is about family, about our families trying to stay together; the lengths to which we all go to protect each other and protect the place where we live,” Weaver said. “It’s very much based on Jim’s family and his joy in the family; and also, how vulnerable you are when you have children.”

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James Cameron doesn’t typically make autobiographical movies unless we count Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which we’ve always assumed comes from a childhood relationship with a killer robot. Now seems like the time to do it, with other American auteurs releasing autobiographical movies this year, such as The Fabelmans and Armageddon Time. But the comment does give insight into the focus of the upcoming film. Plus, we get the chance to willfully misunderstand Weaver’s remarks for comedy.

However, elsewhere in Variety’s reporting, the plot of Way Of Water gets a little stranger. Weaver is playing a 14-year-old Na’vi named Kiri. As we all know, the 73-year-old actor played Dr. Grace Augustine before the character was killed in battle and given to Eywa at the Tree of Souls, with hopes that Pandora’s diety could transfer Dr. Augustine’s consciousness into her avatar. You know what? Whatever Cameron’s got cooked up sounds right in line with the first movie.