James Cameron Doesn’t Want Avatar Sequels To Head-To-Head With Star Wars

The next several Avatar movies were announced – again – by James Cameron at CinemaCon, with the intention to release them around Christmastime in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023. There’s a problem, though – at least through 2017, there are Star Wars movies on the schedule in December, with two more movies announced for after then. Currently, those still have May releases, but Episode VIII was moved from May to December, partially after the record-breaking release of The Force Awakens in the final month of the year.

Well, Cameron is prepared for that possible eventuality, and keeping his dates flexible.

“My original plan was to release them a year apart, but we’re opening up,” he told website FamousMonsters.com at CinemaCon. “If for no other reason than that I don’t want to land on the same date as one of the Star Wars sequels. That wouldn’t be fair to them (laughs).”

The director went on to say, “No, that’s just good business. I don’t want to go head-to-head with Star Wars. That would be stupid. And hopefully they won’t want to go head-to-head with us.”

Yes, that means if the Han Solo “Star Wars Story” film is scheduled for December 2018, you shouldn’t expect Avatar 2 to open anytime within about three weeks of it, essentially treating it as if it’s another tentpole film from the same distributor.