James Cameron commits to Avatar 2 and 3 for 2014 and 2015 releases

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

Free up your Decembers for 2014 and ’15, because that’s when AVATAR 2 and 3 are coming out, respectively. Yes, while we all knew it was inevitable, today brings the official press release from 20th Century Fox gushing about locking up the King of the World for the next five years as he works on the sequels to the biggest money-maker of all time.

Cameron will begin work on the scripts early next year with an eye towards starting production later in 2011. While the press release mentions that it’s not set in stone that Cameron will shoot 2 and 3 back-to-back, it’s hard to imagine any other scenario. December 2014 will bring forth AVATAR 2 (which of course will have some sort of subtitle), while the same month in 2015 brings the third chapter in the saga. Hope those fanatics still feeling the “Avatar Effect” can hold out that long…

Intriguingly, Deadline says that Fox made a “huge” donation to Cameron’s environmental green fund, which might have prompted the director to sign on for the eagerly anticipated flicks. Cameron was reportedly circling CLEOPATRA, which was set to star Angelina Jolie and be produced by Sony, but now he’s dropped out of that in favor of more Na’vi adventures. Money talks, y’all.

Here’s Cameron’s statement on the matter: “It is a rare and remarkable opportunity when a filmmaker gets to build a fantasy world, and watch it grow, with the resources and partnership of a global media company. AVATAR was conceived as an epic work of fantasy – a world that audiences could visit, across all media platforms, and this moment marks the launch of the next phase of that world. With two new films on the drawing boards, my company and I are embarking on an epic journey with our partners at Twentieth Century Fox. Our goal is to meet and exceed the global audience’s expectations for the richness of AVATAR’s visual world and the power of the storytelling. In the second and third films, which will be self contained stories that also fulfill a greater story arc, we will not back off the throttle of AVATAR’s visual and emotional horsepower, and will continue to explore its themes and characters, which touched the hearts of audiences in all cultures around the world. I’m looking forward to returning to Pandora, a world where our imaginations can run wild.”

Zoe Saldana