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Giant Na’vi puppets were used for Avatar 2, and they sound terrifying

Due to the enormous amount of CGI, integrating the human character Spider into Avatar 2 required the use of huge Na'vi puppets with stick arms

Avatar 2 cast: Jack Champion as Spider

It’s fair to say that the science fiction movie Avatar 2 has taken the world by storm. The new James Cameron movie has already joined the ranks of the highest-grossing movies of all time, securing the future of Avatar 3 and the rest of the franchise.

Set years after the first Avatar movie, Avatar 2 followed the story of Jake Sully, the Na’vi and Pandora. It once again saw the planet’s natives protecting themselves from aggressive external forces, however, it also took more time to delve into the creatures that inhabited the world, such as the tulkun.

It also explored the lives of the young Na’vi, as well as a young 16-year-old human called Spider (Jack Champion), who is close to Sully’s family. Spider presented a unique challenge to the making of Avatar because he would often be the only human character in a scene which also included a lot of CGI.

Now, speaking with Variety, Champion has spoken about how he was integrated into the CGI scenes and how he had to adapt to working alongside huge Na’vi puppets in place of the other actors. He said, “We had this acting troupe that would basically re-act what the actors did just for my sake,”

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He continued, “but they’d wear this giant Na’vi puppet on their shoulders, so there’d be a torso here and then a head up here, and then they’d control the arms with little sticks — foam Na’vi that were actually 10 feet tall for us to look at.”

Champion’s explanation helps to provide a better understanding of some of the cinematic magic behind the new movie, however, the thought of standing alongside enormous Avatar puppets whose arms are controlled by little sticks sounds kind of terrifying. We definitely wouldn’t want to be stuck in a room with them, like Champion was, at least.

For more on Avatar, check out our guide to the Avatar 3 release date and our Avatar 2 cast guide. Or, take a look at our picks for the best movies of all time.