Following the success of 2022’s Avatar: The Way Of Water, Disney has announced that the next three films in James Cameron‘s epic sci-fi franchise have been delayed.
Per a report from Variety, Disney has pushed back the third Avatar film by a full year from December 2024 to December 2025. As a result, the two following films in the sci-fi franchise have also delayed by three years to 2029 and 2031 respectively.
That means the final film in the Avatar franchise is set to premiere a whopping 22 years after the original 2009 film’s debut. Avatar 3 was filmed simultaneously alongside Avatar: The Way Of Water.
Disney has yet to share a reason for the delays, though franchise producer Jon Landau took to Twitter on June 13 to explain that the films are an “epic undertaking that takes time to bring to the quality level we as filmmakers strive for and audiences have come to expect”.
Each Avatar film is an exciting but epic undertaking that takes time to bring to the quality level we as filmmakers strive for and audiences have come to expect. The team is hard at work and can’t wait to bring audiences back to Pandora in December 2025. pic.twitter.com/DrFX01qzTa
— Jon Landau (@jonlandau) June 13, 2023
“The team is hard at work and can’t wait to bring audiences back to Pandora in December 2025,” Landau added. Franchise creator and director James Cameron has yet to comment on the delays.
Avatar: The Way Of Water made over $1billion (£831m) at the global box office in just 14 days following its release, making it the fast film of 2022 to reach that achievement. The film is also now the third highest-grossing film of all time.
Back in December, Cameron revealed he shot scenes for the third and fourth films in the franchise in advance to avoid Stranger Things-style ageing issues with the younger cast members. He also previously revealed that he was prepared to end the franchise after the third film if The Way Of Water wasn’t a box office success.
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