More than a decade after the blue-fantasy-adventure-dream that was
Avatar hit the 3D screens, we are still anxiously awaiting the previously announced sequel.
Avatar 2 began filming last year, but because of the COVID-19 global pandemic that forced the shutdown of all sets, the much-anticipated sequel has basically been, to quote the movie, “unobtainium.” But Canada’s own famed director James Cameron has officially announced that filming on the sequel has wrapped.Speaking with his
Terminator and
Terminator 2: Judgement Day mega-star Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Austrian World Summit (the biggest environmental conference in the world) via video-chat, Cameron told the Governator that it’s just a matter of time now.
“We’re 100% complete on
Avatar 2 and sort of 95% complete on
Avatar 3,” he said direct from New Zealand where the entire cast and crew have been shacked up, working on the sequels since the Kiwi government gave the production special dispensation to enter the country to continue the project. New Zealand has famously tackled the global pandemic with impeccable results, declaring itself
virus-free.“COVID hit us like it hit everybody. It hit us hard,” he said. “We lost about four and a half months of production as a result of that. We've rolled around one more full year for a release in December of ‘22.” Disney had previously announced that all
Avatar sequels would have to be
pushed back in terms of release date; meaning
Avatar 2 will now hit the silver screen on December 16, 2022 and
Avatar 3 on December 20, 2024. The fourth and fifth pictures are due in 2026 and 2028, respectively.“That doesn't mean that I have an extra year to finish the film,” he added, “because the day we deliver
Avatar 2, we'll just start working on finishing
Avatar 3.”Noting that he still has to complete the remainder of the live-action filming for the 3
rd sequel, he had nothing but praise for New Zealand and the choice to film the sequels in the beautiful Oceanic country.“We're very lucky in that we chose this as our production site years ago, we made the first film here in New Zealand and it turns out to be ranked either the first or second best country in the world for its COVID response.”We already know that
the entire original cast of
Avatar is returning, including Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi and even Sigourney Weaver (who *SPOILER ALERT* saw her character die in the first film), but some new additions have been made, including Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, and Kate Winslet, whom you might remember from her role in a small James Cameron art-house film that no one really saw called
Titanic. Look it up, Generation Z.That doesn’t mean James was forthcoming to Schwarzenegger about sequel deets. “I can’t tell you anything about the story. I believe in the mystery and the great reveal.”[video_embed id='2044514']Before you go: Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara welcome a baby boy[/video_embed]
