James Cameron Offers Update on Avatar Sequels’ Progress

Avatar 2 is inching closer to release in 2021 and production recently wrapped for the year. Director James Cameron gave fans an update on where the process for the film is at this point. The film was originally supposed to be released in a little over a year, but now it’s looking like 2021 will be the year. Near the end of November, the official account gave some fans good news in showing off the massive ship at the center of the upcoming film. The Sea Dragon is impressive, and it seems that all that Avengers: Endgame talk brought these movies right back into the conversation. A return trip to Pandora could provide some definite nostalgia for a lot of viewers because it’s quietly been a while since fans saw or heard anything from the project. Disney’s acquisition of FOX earlier this year poured some water on some fans’ hope of seeing it released. But, that deal isn’t going to stop these from getting made. Also, there’s money to be made, so that should soothe some fears as well.

“From 2013 until now we’ve mostly designed the whole world across four new movies,” Cameron told Variety. “We’ve written, finished scripts for all four of those films. We’ve cast them, and we’ve [performance] captured movie 2, movie 3, and the first part of movie 4. We’re mostly done with the live action. I’ve got a couple months in New Zealand in spring, so we’re kind of on track with what we set out to do.”

“People don’t really understand the scope and complexity of the process,” he continued. “It’s like making two and a half big animated films. A typical big animated film takes about four years, so, if you do the math on that, we’re kind of right on schedule for December 2021.”

Earlier this year executive producer Jon Landau told Comicbook.com that production had already begun and that took a lot of people off-guard. He was doing a promotional tour for Alita: Battle Angel then, but he made sure to highlight how far movie technology had come since that first Avatar film. Seeing what the team can accomplish with more modern tools is nothing short of exciting.

“We’re well into production,” Landau told us. “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.”

Like many others, Landau didn’t expect much of an impact from the Disney deal. “If Fox made the choice to sell we’re very glad it was to Disney,” Landau added. “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 foodservice, QSR, that they’ve ever had. So we are looking forward to a very exciting future with Disney.”

Avatar 2 is expected to hit theaters in Winter of 2021.