James Cameron is a man on a very strange mission: flood the world with enough Avatar media in hopes that when the workhorse of a director reveals he’s really an alien with blue skin, we’ll still love and accept him. That is the only logical explanation with the copious amount of filming he can get done in so little time. He’s film-making’s version of Stephen King and Avatar is his The Dark Tower, except these movies actually have a chance to be good. Even with Cameron’s unflinching work ethic, though, I was still surprised to hear that principal photography for not one but two Avatar movies had wrapped.
In a video tweet, James Cameron confirmed that all the big name actors parts and principal photography for Avatar 2 and 3 are complete. Standing in front of his “performance capture stage,” also known as The Hall of Green Screens, Cameron praised the actor’s performances before revealing that the tweet is mostly promotion for Alita: Battle Angel which is becoming more and more forgettable every day. No matter, we got our juicy Avatar news for the month!
At this point, I’m more intrigued with the production process of the Avatar franchise than the movies themselves. One film is already a ludicrous amount of juggling, but managing a whole bevy of sequels (with even more on the way) is super daunting. With that said, Cameron still has a bunch of work to do as the biggest star of Avatar, the CGI, has to be put in, but these movies really will come out and we’ll get to see if that long, apathetic wait was worth it. Avatar 2 will release December 18, 2020, while Avatar 3 is set for December 17, 2021.
James Cameron: The ‘Avatar’ Sequels Have Wrapped Production [Deadline]