James Cameron's well-known perfectionism has resulted in Disney having to wait for interstellar travel so that future Avatar films, especially the finale, can start production on location in a world that's similar to Earth and Pandora. Or, at least, that's the joke the internet is running with these days. The truth is far more complicated matter.
In an announcement that shook the film industry on Tuesday, Disney unveiled a major scheduling revamp, pushing back all the Avatar sequels - some by a staggering number of years.
The eagerly awaited Avatar 3, still without a definitive title, has been delayed by a full year from its original release date of December 20, 2024, to December 19, 2025. But the real surprise came with the news about Avatar 4, which is now coming on December 2029 instead of December 2026. Avatar 5, which is expected to be the grand finale of the epic series, is now scheduled to grace our screens only in December 2031, three years after its initially slated 2028 release.
Given this recent development, one might argue that patience is now synonymous with being an Avatar fan. It's worth recalling that the sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, arrived in December, a hefty 13 years after the original Avatar. However, if the current schedule stands, fans won't have to endure more than a decade between visits to the mesmerizing world of Pandora again.
Disney's scheduling decision, which has caused quite a stir online, appears to be the consequence of its decision to add a new slate of Star Wars films as well as a live-action Moana adaptation to its lineup of upcoming movies.
As per the new schedule, the final installment in the Avatar franchise will arrive 22 years after the original 2009 film, a long, albeit worthwhile, wait for its dedicated fandom.
If nothing else, this massive gap should give Cameron enough time to work on his Hiroshima Bombing film.
With Avatar: The Way of Water raking in an impressive $2.2433 billion at the global box office since it came out in theaters in December last year, it stands as the third highest-grossing movie of all time, only surpassed by the first Avatar movie at $2.9 billion and Avengers: Endgame at $2.7 billion.
Despite these delays, the silver lining for fans might be that the postponement grants the production team more time to refine the cutting-edge CGI and SFX that the franchise is renowned for. Yet, on the flip side, the eager devotees who painted themselves blue for premiere night will have to wait a considerable while longer to do so again.
While the reasons for the delays may not be crystal clear, it's important to remember that each Avatar movie is a colossal undertaking that demands a painstaking level of attention to detail and quality. As per producer Jon Landau, "The team is hard at work and can’t wait to bring audiences back to Pandora in December 2025.”
We can only hope that James Cameron's vision for the Avatar series, which was initially conceived to be released at a much earlier schedule, will continue to exceed expectations despite these setbacks.
After all, it's not every day you can claim that the time span between the release of a film series' first and last installment is long enough for a child born on the first film's premiere day to legally drink on the final film's release in the US.
