Disney is ironing out its release schedule, now that it has acquired 20th Century Fox, and as a result, many movies are being moved around, and mostly pushed back. Among those projects are James Cameron‘s ‘Avatar’ sequels. Reportedly, filming has been completed on the first movie (and possibly more), but the majority of these movies is post-production/CGI, so expect a few more years to be spent putting it all together.
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According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, ‘Avatar 2’, which may or may not be called ‘The Way of Water’, has been bumped from December 18, 2020 to December 17, 2021. ‘Avatar 3’, which may or may not be called ‘The Seed Bearer’, has been pushed back from December 2021 to December 22, 2023.
Reportedly, 20th Century Fox wanted to wait and see how those movies performed before pushing ahead with more, Cameron has plans for fourth (‘The Tulkun Rider’) and fifth (‘The Quest for Eywa’) installments. ‘Avatar 4’ has been pushed from December 2024 to December 29, 2025, while ‘Avatar 5’ has been delayed from December 2025 to December 27, 2027.
Disney is replacing ‘Avatar 2’ with another project it inherited from Fox, Steven Spielberg’s remake of the musical ‘West Side Story’, which assumes the December 18, 2020 spot.
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As for those other vacated dates? Disney is aiming high, with a clear goal of owning every December for the coming decade or so. Where there were once plans for ‘Avatar’ movies, will now be ‘Star Wars’ flicks! However, take that with a grain of salt for a variety of reasons. We already know that Disney wants to give ‘Star Wars’ and its fans a break after the release of ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ this winter. It also didn’t appear that any subsequent movies were that far into development.
But Disney has still locked in the dates of Dec. 16, 2022, Dec. 12, 2024, and Dec. 18, 2026 for future ‘Star Wars’ epics.
There are two separate trilogies in the works– one from ‘The Last Jedi’s Rian Johnson, and other from ‘Game of Thrones’ showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
James Cameron is directing all of the ‘Avatar’ sequels. The casts include (or are rumored to include) Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, and Sam Worthington, from the first movie, plus newcomers Oona Chaplin, Brendan Cowell, Cliff Curtis, Vin Diesel, Edie Falco, David Thewlis, Kate Winslet, and Michelle Yeoh. The upcoming sequels will arrive on December 17, 2021, December 22, 2023, December 29, 2025, and December 27, 2027.
