‘Avatar 2’ Delayed, Will Not Arrive In Christmas 2017
By Ethan Anderton/Jan. 21, 2016 7:18 pm EST
The Wrap has the news of Avatar 2 delayed, though at this point we’re not surprised. For the past few years Avatar 2 has been rumored for 2014, 2015, 2016 and most recently 2017. But when Cameron did mention the previous Christmas 2017 target, he added that meeting that date wasn’t as important as “the fact that when we get all three films done, we drop them a year apart.”
There was already speculation that Avatar 2 wasn’t going to meet the estimated release when Star Wars: Episode VIII moved to December 15th, 2017, a full seven months after the previously planned May 2017 release date. Disney clearly knew they weren’t going to have any major competition at the box office and also wanted that Christmas money for their merchandise release. Plus, there’s no way Disney would willingly take on Avatar 2 with the chance of having a smaller IMAX screen count, especially when there’s an Avatar installment planned for their theme parks.
As of now, all we know about Avatar 2 is that Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana are reprising their lead roles, underwater performance capture technology will be used, and there’s a chance that Sigourney Weaver might be back in some capacity. Otherwise, any story details are being kept under tight wraps.
In the end, the fact that it’s taking this long for Avatar 2 to come to fruition isn’t all that surprising. James Cameron first announced Avatar as a future project of his in 1996, and audiences didn’t get to see it until 2009. Hopefully fans won’t have to wait 13 years for Avatar 2, though at this point they’ve already waited a little over six, so what’s another seven years?
