James Cameron Reveals Details on Highly Anticipated AVATAR Sequels

In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Director James Cameron has shared details on the highly anticipated sequels to his hit film AVATAR. Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Joel David Moore, Stephen Lang, Matt Gerald and Sigourney Weaver are expected to reprise their roles in the upcoming films, with Cliff Curtis and Oona Chaplin joining the cast.

Filming on Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 got underway on September 25, 2017. Avatar 2 will hit theaters on December 18, 2020, followed by Avatar 3 releasing on December 17, 2021. Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 are scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 20, 2024 and December 19, 2025, respectively.

Speaking of reuniting with TITANIC star Kate Winslet for the Avatar franchise, Cameron shares, "She blazed through for a couple of days of rehearsals and saw the world that we had created, and how we do the work, and she's very excited. She plays a character who's part of the Sea People, the reef people. THE ONE thing she did do is demand that she do all her own water work. I said, "All right, that's fine, we'll have to teach you how to free dive." The other actors are up to three- and four-minute breath holds. We've already been doing underwater capture. We did a scene last week with six teenagers, well, actually five teenagers and one 7-year-old underwater holding their breath for a couple minutes and acting, actually doing a dialogue scene under water because they speak kind of a sign language."

The director also discussed the numerous delays on the upcoming installments, explaining, "I wouldn't call them delays. It was highly optimistic that we could start quickly until scripts are written. If there's no scripts, there's nothing, right? The scripts took four years... We're doing very well because of all the time that we had to develop the system and the pipeline and all that. We weren't wasting time, we were putting it into tech development and design. So when all the scripts were approved, everything was designed. Every character, every creature, every setting."

Teasing the upcoming 4th and 5th installments, Cameron shares, "Let's face it, if Avatar 2 and 3 don't make enough money, there's not going to be a 4 and 5. They're fully encapsulated stories in and of themselves. It builds across the five films to a greater kind of meta narrative, but they're fully formed films in their own right, unlike, say, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, where you really just had to sort of go, 'Oh, sh*t, all right, well I guess I better come back next year.' Even though that all worked and everybody did."

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