Actor Sam Worthington is about to start work on the blockbuster family sequel to Avatar, but that doesn't mean he likes being in the public eye when not disguised in the blue of his character Jake.

"I don't think it's fun to read about yourself," he shrugs. "I don't think anyone gives a rat's ass what I had for breakfast either, so you won't find me on social media."

It's been eight years since Avatar broke global box-office records and launched Worthington's career, but the 40-year-old Australian actor has finally confirmed a start date of August for the four sequels to be shot concurrently by filmmaker James Cameron.

Avatar has a start date: August.

Although Worthington and director Cameron have kept mum on the storyline, Avatar 2 is reportedly set in the future where his character Jake Sully is married with children to Neytiri (Zoe Saldana).

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The actor has also become a family man: he married former Australian model and reality star Lara Bingle in 2014.

Zoe Saldana as 'Neytiri' and Sam Worthingtom as 'Jake Sully' in Avatar.

The couple's two boys, ages two and four months, are rarely spotted in public.

"I am a very protective man, especially with my loved ones so now I'm a parent I think I just got a little bit more protective," says the actor.

Fatherhood seems to have also softened Worthington who was arrested in 2014 for punching a paparazzi photographer who came too close to his then-girlfriend Bingle.

His next film is the faith-based drama The Shack in which he plays a grieving father who meets with God in a shack.

"I think having kids helps you learn how to forgive because they are an antidote to selfishness and a constant reminder it's not always about you," he says.

Worthington revealed in a recent interview in New York that filming would start in August.

"Then you are on the boss' time for as long as it takes so whenever he wants me, mate, I'm there."

Worthington promises the new Avatar film, to be shot in New Zealand and California, will be worth the wait. "This will make the first massive blockbuster look tiny," he teases.

"I've read all the scripts and I talk to Jim frequently and he's extremely smart in not only increasing the world of the film and the experience of the film but also what the movie is actually about, which is family," he adds. "Look at his track record of making sequels like Terminator and Aliens and he knows what he is doing."

Worthington is based in New York but returned home for two recent projects: the 2015 miniseries Deadline Gallipoli and the 2016 Oscar-nominated Mel Gibson film Hacksaw Ridge.

Avatar 2 is expected to be released December 21 next year.