James Cameron has spent almost as long in development on his Avatar sequels as he did the first movie; release dates have shifted several times as the ambitious project expanded from two sequels, to three, and finally four, with the first slated to arrive in 2018. However, despite the fact the scripts are now complete, Cameron has revealed that the 2018 date for Avatar 2 “is not happening”.
“Well, 2018 is not happening,” Cameron told The Star. “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. (Laughs) 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,” he continued. “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. But there is a very high degree of enthusiasm at 20th Century Fox for these projects. And certainly here in house. We’re just loving it. We’re loving being able to immerse in this world in so much more detail than people can imagine. When you imagine what Avatar movies will be like from where we were. You won’t be able to imagine where we’re taking this. And for me, that’s the fun of getting to reveal it in it’s time.”
So, it seems there’ll be at least a ten-year gap between Avatar and its first sequel. Will there still be the interest after all that time? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
Originally published March 11, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
