Another one bites the dust as a result of the coronavirus global emergency. The back-to-back sequels to James Cameron’s Avatar are forced to delay their scheduled filming to a date to be confirmed. The work should have started on Friday in New Zealand. Speaking with The New Zealand Herald, Avatar producer Jon Landau also revealed that production will move forward in Los Angeles for now.
“We’ve delayed it,” Landau said. “We had plans to come down Friday night with a group of people and start back up and we made the decision to hold off and continue working here [Los Angeles], and come down there a little bit later than we’d planned.”
Landau said also the production’s priority was to get as many “more minutes” to Weta Digital as possible. Peter Jackson’s visual effects company is working on the digital effects on the movies.
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It’s unknown at the moment whether this hindrance will delay the official release of the sequels or not. Disney has planned to film four back-to-back sequels to 2009’s epic science fiction blockbuster. The first sequel will — supposedly — debut in theaters in December 2021. Meanwhile, Cameron recently declared himself pretty confident that the Avatar re-release will top Avengers: Endgame as the highest box-office success ever.
The new cast of the Avatar franchise includes Kate Winslet, Edie Falco, Michelle Yeoh, Vin Diesel, as well as Jemaine Clement and Oona Chaplin alongside a slate of young actors. Returning cast members include Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, as well as Matt Gerald and Sigourney Weaver. Stephen Lang’s Colonel Miles Quaritch will return for all four sequels as the main villain throughout the story.
Avatar 2 was set to hit theaters in December 2021. What do you expect from the Avatar sequels? Let us know in the comments section below.
