Four 'Avatar' Sequels Being Developed, James Cameron Announces
James Cameron, the Academy Award-winning director behind the box office hits "Titanic" (1997) and "Avatar" (2009), has announced that "Avatar" will be getting not three sequels, but four.
The announcement was made on Thursday, April 14, at Fox's presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. Cameron took the stage at the end of the presentation to tell the audience that while only three "Avatar" sequels, forming a trilogy, were originally planned, he and his team are now working on four follow-ups so that the whole story of "Avatar" could be told.
The original 2009 film was both a critical and a commercial success, and won three Academy Awards, including ones for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.
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"We have decided to embark on a truly massive cinematic process," Cameron said at CinemaCon. According to the director, while the plan was to make only three sequels, he ultimately found that number insufficient. "We began to bump up against the limitations for our art form," he told the crowd.
"I've been working the last couple of years with a team of four top screenwriters," Cameron said, "to design the world of Avatar going forward: the characters, the creatures, the environment, the new cultures."
As the celebrated filmmaker explained, all four "Avatar" sequels will form a saga but will also be able to stand alone. The plan is to release "Avatar 2" on Christmas 2018, "Avatar 3" on Christmas 2020, "Avatar" 4 on Christmas 2022, and "Avatar 5" on Christmas 2023.
"So far, the art I'm seeing is, in pure imagination, really far beyond the first film," the director said. "It's going to be a true epic saga."
"Avatar" stars Sam Worthington (Jake Sully) and Zoe Saldana (Neytiri) signed up to reprise their roles for the upcoming sequels back in 2014.
"Avatar 2" was originally slated for a Christmas 2016 release before being bumped to Christmas 2017. The new release date for the highly anticipated sequel is Christmas 2018.
