You may have noticed that Avatar 2 producer Jon Landau has been regularly posting set photos from director James Cameron‘s follow-up movies. You’ve probably also noticed that they haven’t exactly been the most thrilling images – it’s largely been shots of people standing inside sound stages around pools. But today, Landau has published an Avatar 2 performance capture photo of one of the actors totally submerged underwater, and it finally provides a significant hint at what we’ll see when (if?) the movie arrives late next year.

Avatar 2 Performance Capture Photo

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Still photographer Mark Fellman snapped this photo last year of Britain Dalton during underwater performance capture on the Avatar sequels.

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Young actor Britain Dalton, whose credits include Goliath, Ready Player One, and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, is playing Lo’ak, the second-born son of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) in the sequels. You can learn more about the ensemble cast and their characters here if you need a refresher.

Instead of a bunch of people standing around indoors, this photo actually has some action in it. While we knew much of the sequels took place under the seas of Pandora, this photo confirms that the Na’vi won’t be swimming around underwater by themselves – at least, not all the time. This picture makes it look like Lo’ak is riding a large aquatic creature…or perhaps even flying on the back of a Banshee that decided to take a dip all the way under the surface to cool off. Is Lo’ak grabbing on to one of his brothers or sisters, who are also underwater? Or is he reaching for another character? Maybe he’s reaching for Giovanni Ribisi’s Parker Selfridge, who’s playing a mean-spirited game of “Keep the Unobtanium Away from the Sully Family.” Come on, Parker. That’s not very nice.

Avatar 2 is currently slated to arrive in theaters on December 27, 2021.

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