‘Avatar 2’ Producer Updates Production Status, Talks Disney Merger

Avatar 2 is deep into production, as James Cameron’s sequel is finally coming to life with the help of WETA Digital on the horizon of Fox merging with Disney.

While talking to ComicBook.com in promotion of February’s release of Alita: Battle Angel, executive producer Jon Landau offered some insight about the upcoming project. “It’s coming along really well, actually,” Landau said of Avatar 2. “What we’ve learned from Alita was just this intense focus on one single character performance. The amount of detail that we know we’re going to have to bring to the screen for Avatar was just something that has kind of gotten a little bit higher now that we’ve gone through Alita.”

In fact, there are more layers and complexities in one of the titular hero’s eyes in Alita than there were in all of Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies. Needless to say, the team might make Avatar 2 quite a visual feast.

“We’re well into production,” Landau said. “We’ve completed our performance capture with Sam [Worthington] and Zoe [Saldana] and Stephen Lang and Cliff Curtis and Sigourney Weaver and a great group of young kids. We’ve been capturing not just on a stage but in a 500,000 gallon water tank, below the water, above the water. Jim [Cameron] has written into the scripts all of the stuff that people would expect from an Avatar sequel. A story that completes itself, an emotional journey in a world like you’ve never seen.”

As Disney gears up to complete their purchase of Fox, Landau doesn’t expect much of an impact on the Avatar franchise as its changes ownership hands. “If Fox made the choice to sell we’re very glad it was to Disney,” Landau said. “We’ve had now a six year plus relationship with Disney building Pandora, the World of Avatar in Orlando. They got to know us, we got to know them. Bob Iger is thrilled with the collaboration that we’ve had in creating Pandora which is the highest rated land and attractions and food service, QSR, that they’ve ever had. So we are looking forward to a very exciting future with Disney.”

Landau’s Alita: Battle Angel hits theaters on February 14, 2019. Avatar 2 is slated for release in 2020.