Of all films teased at CinemaCon, James Cameron’s upcoming Avatar sequels seemed to generate the most hype – sorry El Muerto.

Between confirmation of the film’s title, reassurance of its (already record-breaking) release this year, and a first look at footage, the film dominated a lot of this week’s news cycle. That’s without fans having seen any of the film themselves yet…until today.

While there are rumblings that a teaser could debut this week ahead of Doctor Strange 2‘s theatrical debut – and it would make sense from a marketing standpoint – fans got to see what all the fuss was about firsthand when some official stills from the film surfaced this morning.

You can check out the photos, courtesy of Big Screen Leaks below:

Avatar 2, which will officially be released under the title Avatar: The Way of Water will not only see the return of James Cameron behind the camera, but will also feature Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, C.C.H Pounder, and Matt Gerald in their original starring roles too.

Meanwhile Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Oona Chaplin, Vin Diesel, and CJ Jones join the franchise as brand new characters. Sigourney Weaver will also return; however, she’ll be playing a total different character this time around.

After years of being pushed back, the film is (finally) slated to be released on December 16, 2022, with three subsequent sequels scheduled to be released on December 20, 2024, December 18, 2026 and December 22, 2028 respectively.

Prior to its release, the original film will be re-released in theaters this September.

SOURCE: Big Screen Leaks