“Avatar 2” has had eight release date delays.
Speaking with Arnold Schwarzenegger, as part of the Austrian World Summit discussing climate change and politics, James Cameron confirmed that filming has been completed on “Avatar 2,” and all but done on “Avatar 3”: “We’re 100 percent complete on ‘Avatar 2’ and we’re sort of 95 percent complete on ‘Avatar 3,’” he explained.
Cameron’s “Avatar” was released in 2009 and became the all-time box-office champ (until “Avengers: Endgame" dethroned it in 2019). When Cameron announced that four sequels would follow, many people were bewildered — you see, even if “Avatar” broke box-office records left and right, over the last decade, it hasn’t really aged well. Its “Dances With Wolves” meets “Pocahontas” storyline didn’t feel fresh, and in fact, the real reason why it became such a monstrous success was due to Cameron’s groundbreaking use of 3D technology in the film.
And so, with these four new installments, we have to expect some kind of new technology, or else what would be the point of Cameron spending a total of $1 billion on these new films? Cameron is rumored to be designing some kind of new 3D standard that has made post-production a longer process than usual. We are not quite sure what he is up to in terms of the technological aspect of these films, but rumors suggest that he is looking into having audiences experience glasses-free 3D. In 2016, Cameron had spoken about his desire in attaining the technology needed to deliver a glasses-free 3D Avatar experience [via THR].
I am in absolutely no rush to find out what the plot of the upcoming “Avatar” sequels will revolve around, in fact, I pretty much forgot how the first one ended. However, one has to be excited about the secret technology Cameron is working on here. “Avatar” did boost the 3D market for a period of time, until it lost all steam, due to an incalculable amount of films trying to take advantage of the fad by upgrading their non-3D movies into 3D movies. You mostly just had a handful of films that honored Cameron’s original vision of 3D art, those included “Gravity,” “Hugo,” “The Walk,” and “The Life of Pi.”
“Avatar 2” is expected to bow on December 16, 2022.