Bad news for anyone who took James Cameron’s word of a December 2018 release of Avatar 2 as it is not happening. In fact, there is no sure date of release for the most awaited sequel from the world of Pandora. Fans are now experiencing déjà vu as they recall that back in 2011, Cameron said that the sequel would come out in 2014.

The director recently sat down with The Star to talk about his fascination and deep love of science and history. This has led him to produce technologically advanced documentaries, such as Atlanta Rising, which premiered on Discovery last January. When asked about Avatar 2’s development, however, the director explained the delay and why there will be no 2018 release.

“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,” Cameron said. “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.”

[Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]

If it took four-and-a-half years for one movie, that means Avatar 2, 3, 4, and 5 would take 18 years to finish, since they are currently being made at the same time. Only eight years have passed since the release of the first Avatar film. According to a calculation done by Gizmodo, Avatar 2 would probably be shown in 2020.

In the meantime, it looks like the Oscar-winning director gave some major spoilers as he talked about Pandora: The World of Avatar theme park at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida. According to Cameron, the park is actually set in a timeline after the five movies. This is when the war between humans and Na’vi is over, and they have begun to welcome humans onto their planet. In a first look luckily given to Whoopi Goldberg for The View, Cameron shared that he gets a lot of his ideas from his dreams. The bioluminescent forest was actually from a dream that he had when he was just seventeen. What James did was that the moment he woke up, he sketched everything from memory. This reveals that the director has actually been working on Avatar for a very long time.

[Image by 20th Century Fox]

If there’s one thing that we need to trust James Cameron to be doing, though, it’s making epic films that often end up being box office hits. The 1997 film, Titanic, is one such example of Cameron’s impressive feats, garnering 121 wins from various award-giving bodies, which includes Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography during the 1998 Academy Awards. The other highest grossing film of all time is, of course, Avatar, which, as mentioned, took four-and-a-half years to make. This is because of the technology and concept development involved in making the film. Aside from using 3D and CGI, Cameron also created the world of Pandora, including the environment, history, people, and even the Na’vis’ own language.

The Pandora theme park will let its guests experience riding on the back of a mountain banshee or travel on the Na’vi river journey. Its world can also be enjoyed in two different experiences in the morning and in the evening. Both offer different views of the exotic world of the Na’vi. Pandora: The World of Avatar is set to open its doors to the public at Animal Kingdom on May 27.

[Featured Image by Amanda Edwards/Getty Images]