One of the great films of 2022 has been, without a doubt, Avatar: The Sense of Water. The last great work of James Cameron has reaped a good amount of dollars thanks to all the atmosphere that the filmmaker has been creating over the last few years.
However, the concept of his universe has been changing since he began creating the script almost 20 years ago, and even the Na’Vi they seemed quite different than they finally were. Through one of his designers, we have been able to see the terrifying shape that was going to have at first the beings of Pandora.
Has been Joseph C. Pepe, Cameron’s main designer for the Avatar films, who has shared through his Instagram account the initial concept of a Na’Vi elderly. In addition to the photo, Pepe shared how the process of creating this character was, since his initial sketch consists of 2004.
“This was our introduction to begin a two-week process to bring our version of the Na’vi for Project 880, the code name for Avatar. They gave us 14 days to show Cameron something new, further develop the characters and give them new life. At the time, Cameron had stated that the film would be photorealistic upon completion and I felt the pressure to illustrate something that would impress him.”
After two weeks, the designer showed Cameron the final result, but it seems that did not express any kind of emotion during the review, only he recognized the bioluminescence he used to make his forehead glow: “That’s a pelagic nudibranch, Phylliroe bucephala.” Cameron commented. This answer surprised Joseph, since he not only recognized what type of bioluminescence he had used, but he also knew the scientific name for it.