‘Avatar’ fans have a lot to look forward to, including the new attractions at Disney World opening this year.  One thing they’ll have to wait a bit longer for is a film sequel.  Director James Cameron has been actively developing not one, not two,not even three sequels, but FOUR!  And he has been developing them simultaneously, hoping to build, not just another film series, but a virtual world.

To assist him, Cameron assembled a “writers room” consisting of Josh Friedman (‘War of the Worlds’), Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (‘Jurassic World’), and Shane Salerno (‘Savages’).  Cameron had, at one point, hoped to have a sequel in theaters by 2014.  (The first movie came out way back in 2009!)  That got pushed back to December 2016.  Then Christmas Day 2018, with ‘Avatar 3’ following in 2020, ‘Avatar 4’ in 2022 and ‘Avatar 5’ in 2023.  Now, in the words of Cameron himself, that’s also “not happening.”

While promoting his documentary ‘Atlantis Rising’, Cameron relented:

“Well, 2018 is not happening. We haven’t announced a firm release date.  What people have to understand is that this is a cadence of releases. So we’re not making Avatar 2, we’re making Avatar 2, 3, 4, and 5. It’s an epic undertaking. It’s not unlike building the Three Gorges dam.

“So I know where I’m going to be for the next eight years of my life.  It’s not an unreasonable time frame if you think about it. It took us four-and-a-half years to make one movie and now we’re making four. We’re full tilt boogie right now. This is my day job and pretty soon we’ll be 24-7. We’re pretty well designed on all our creatures and sets. It’s pretty exciting stuff. I wish I could share with the world. But we have to preserve a certain amount of showmanship and we’re going to draw that curtain when the time is right.”

In 2012, Sigourney Weaver admitted that the franchise would be a massive undertaking, stating that they would shoot “back-to-back-to-back.”  It’s unclear how this will affect Zoë Saldana, who starred as Neytiri, but has since gone on to become a major player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Gamora.  Her latest Marvel film, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ is due in theaters in May, but she is also currently attached to ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ which is now shooting and will most likely also be appearing in at least one more ‘Guardians’ sequel and possibly another ‘Avengers’ (after all, ‘Infinity War’ was originally announced as a two-parter).

Despite the delays for sequels, the first ‘Avatar’ became the highest grossing movie of all time.  There should still be some demand for a return to Pandora.  At least Cameron can hope.

Are you still waiting for the ‘Avatar’ sequels?  Or have you grown weary of waiting?

Source: Entertainment Weekly