'Avatar 2' Movie Release Date Delay Latest News: James Cameron Announces Sequel to Be Pushed Back to 2017
"Avatar 2," the much awaited sequel to the 2009 "Avatar" movie, will not be released in 2016 as originally announced and will be delayed to 2017. James Cameron, the film's creator and director, made the announcement last Jan. 14 at an event in Wellington, New Zealand.
In a report on BBC, Cameron cites that he is working on the three films simultaneously rather than one by one and writing the script had "become very involved."
"There is a layer of complexity in getting the story to work as a saga across three films," he said.
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The first task at hand, according to Cameron, is to finish the scripts for the three films before the end of January so that production can finally start. He also shared that it was important that each of the films had "a satisfying way" of linking to each other while at the same time provide "a resolution that did not leave the audience hanging."
Cameron originally planned to release the three sequels, a year apart and one after another starting in winter 2016. This recent announcement delays those plans by a year, so the first one will be released in 2017, then in 2018 and the last one in 2019.
"Avatar 2" is set in the same sci-fi world created for the first film, Pandora and it happens during the 22nd Century. The second installment will bring back lead actors Sam Worthington, Zoe Zaldana, Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver. According to the Avatar wiki, the second film will feature new parts of Pandora to be explored.
The sequels will be shot on location in New Zealand, same as the first film.
"Avatar" broke the record as the highest earning film in movie history, earning as much as $2.8 billion. It also won three Oscar awards for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects in 2010.
