As director James Cameron begins his work on his ambitious sequels to Avatar, we have our first new casting announcement not just for Avatar 2, but for the rest of the series. Deadline has confirmed Fear the Walking Dead‘s Cliff Curtis has signed on for a lead role in all four sequels as Tonowari, leader of the Metkayina, a Na’vi who live on Pandora’s reef.
Curtis joins returning cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang for the sequels. Production on the sequels will apparently work around Curtis’ Fear the Walking Dead schedule, in which he plays a lead role. The Avatar sequels will film in Wellington’s Stone Street Studios in 2018.
Cameron has previously spoken about exploring Pandora’s oceans and how he will use technology to film underwater sequences. The sequels have been delayed several times over the years, but Cameron and 20th Century Fox have committed to their new release schedule for the Avatar franchise. Avatar 2 will be release December 18, 2020 with the sequels scheduled for the Christmas season in 2021, 2024 and 2025.
Cameron has written the scripts for the Avatar sequels with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno.