Avatar type Movie genre Animated

James Cameron’s Avatar sequels don’t start hitting theaters until late 2018, but the blockbuster director just teased some updated details about the second film in his planned pentalogy.

Speaking to Variety, Cameron said the storyline for the second, third, fourth, and fifth Avatar sequels will focus on the first film’s core couple, Jake and Neytiri (Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana), and their children. “It’s more of a family saga about the struggle with the humans,” he said.

Cameron said the first sequel is expected to debut in December of 2018, but that the date will shift “if we need to.”

“The important thing for me is not when the first one comes out but the cadence of the release pattern,” he told Variety. “I want them to be released as close together as possible. If it’s an annual appointment to show up at Christmas, I want to make sure that we’re able to fulfill on that promise.”

Back in April, it was announced that the Avatar sequels are expected to debut in December 2018, before continuing in December 2020, December 2022, and December 2023. The original film came out in 2009.

If Cameron’s family comments sound familiar, that’s because he teased a similar storyline back in 2013. “We spread it around quite a bit more as we go forward,” Cameron said at the time. “It’s really the story of his family, the family that [Jake] creates on Pandora. His extended family. So think of it as a family saga like The Godfather.”