James Cameron's "Avatar: The Way of Water" is over three hours long. That's more than 190 minutes of screen time in which every frame of every second demands a high fidelity of CGI. It also requires music because movies are eerie without an underscore to inform the emotional current. For Cameron's first excursion into Pandora, James Horner composed. With prior credits such as "Braveheart" and Cameron's own "Titanic," Horner's involvement was practically guaranteed. Unfortunately, Horner lost his life in a tragic plane crash back in 2015, making any further work on the "Avatar" series impossible.

In his stead, Simon Franglen became the composer of "The Way of Water." Franglen, too, shares a long history of musical employment with Cameron (and with Horner, as well), including "Titanic" and the first "Avatar." Taking over a project from another artist is difficult at the best of times, but few things are trickier to balance than continuing the work of a late, well-known creator. Franglen at least had the benefit of being familiar with his predecessor's talent, and he used that familiarity to pay homage to his bygone brother. 

In an exclusive interview with our own Jack Giroux, Simon Franglen spoke of the way he incorporated the late James Horner's music from "Avatar" into "Avatar: The Way of Water," saying:

Franglen went on to use a flying sequence between Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) in the sequel as an example of music that was pulled directly from Horner's work, claiming that it gave "The Way of Water" a "sort of resonance." He also recalled James Cameron looking for specific musical "flavors" and "textures" from Horner's music to be intertwined into the newer melodies so that the films would accrue a "canon of motifs." 

"Motif" is just a fun word that defines the connection between a sound and an idea, and movies that utilize motifs correctly are often remembered well beyond their years. Consider "Hedwig's Theme" in the "Harry Potter" series, which is used to symbolize the thrill of entering a magical world. For "Avatar," to better link to its future entries, keeping those musical themes in mind while creating new pieces is vital. Speaking of creating new pieces ...

Even though Simon Franglen and James Cameron devoted portions of the "Avatar: The Way of Water" soundtrack to reliving James Horner's music, there was more than ample space for new melodies. From that same exclusive interview, Franglen said:

Like we said earlier, "The Way of Water" is over 3 hours long. If Franglen and Cameron only used Horner's music, it would either have to be vamped ad nauseum to fill out the space or lengthy sections would have simply been very, very quiet. Instead, Horner's work became one of many load bearing pillars in Franglen's composition. For what it's worth, and from multiple sources, it seems as though Franglen struck the perfect balance of old and new, a feat he can proudly carry into upcoming work on "Avatar 3" and beyond.