‘Avatar’ Sequels Delayed By One Year To 2017
In a move that will surprise no one,James Cameronhas revealed that theAvatarsequels will be pushed back by one year. That meansAvatar 2will be out in 2017, followed by Avatars 3 and 4 in 2018 and 2019. “We were probably a bit ambitious,” he admitted of the original release dates. More details on theAvatarsequels delay after the jump.
Cameron revealed the release date shift to theAP(viaVariety). As of now, the plans is still to shoot all 3Avatarsequels simultaneously — and that’s part of the issue.
There’s a layer of complexity in getting the story to work as a saga across three films that you don’t get when you’re making a stand-alone film. […]
We’re writing three simultaneously. And we’ve done that so that everything tracks throughout the three films. We’re not just going to do one and then make up another one and another one after that. And parallel with that, we’re doing all the design. So we’ve designed all the creatures and the environments.
Cameron’s goal is to have all three scripts done this month. He’s heading up the writing team, which also includesJosh Friedman,Shane Salerno,Rick JaffaandAmanda Silver. Then again, he said a similar thingin early 2013and look where we are.
TheAvatardelay leaves Fox without its big tentpole franchise for the 2016 holiday season, though the studio does have the P.T. Barnum biopicThe Greatest Showman on Earthscheduled for that Christmas.
Avatar 2has been in the works for a very long time already. Originally it was supposed to open inDecember 2014, and thenmaybe 2015, and then2016, and now it’s 2017. Cameron is notoriously bad at sticking to his deadlines, so all the delays aren’t very surprising, even if they are disappointing for fans.Sam Worthington,Zoe Saldana,Stephen Lang, andSigourney Weaverare expected back for the sequels, which will follow Jake’s family on Pandora. “Think of it as a family saga likeThe Godfather,” Cameronsaid in 2013. More recently, the filmmaker promised the new movies would “shit yourself with your mouth wide open.”
