Avatar 2 won’t release in 2018

The development of James Cameron’s Avatar sequels has been a long undertaking by the filmmaker since the original film’s release in 2009, with the number of features growing from three to four and frequent delays in release. Now, in an interview with The Star, Cameron has confirmed that the previously-announced 2018 release date won’t be met.

“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. (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. 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.”

20th Century Fox had previously announced a December 2018 release date for the first sequel along with the reveal that subsequent films in the franchise would arrive in December 2020, December 2022, and December 2023, though that release pattern now remains to be seen.

Cameron also recently made an interesting, albeit spoilerish, reveal about the upcoming Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (via io9), saying the theme park attraction actually takes place in the canon of the films… but after all of the sequels.

“So it’s Avatar the first movie, then there are the four sequels that we’re working on now and then a whole generation after that, when all the conflict, all the struggle and all the warfare between the Na’vi and the humans is over; and the Na’vi have welcomed us to Pandora to help us understand nature and ourselves better.”

Confirmed to feature the return of cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver, the Avatar sequels will be produced by Cameron and Jon Landau through their Lightstorm Entertainment. The sequels are written by Cameron along with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman, and Shane Salerno, which Cameron will direct.