Dates announced for four upcoming Avatar sequels

Apr 24, 2017 in "Pandora - The World of Avatar"

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Posted: Monday April 24, 2017 11:40am by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney will soon open Pandora - The World of Avatar at Disney's Animal Kingdom, and fans now have more to be excited about.

The Avatar production team has announced that the Avatar journey will continue with four sequels, with release dates of December 18 2020, December 17 2021, December 20 2024 and December 19 2025.

Despite a series of delays, (the next sequel was supposed to arrive December 2017) production is now underway on all four sequels.

Avatar creatore James Cameron at Disney's Animal Kingdom with Joe Rohde

At Walt Disney World, Pandora - The World of Avatar opens May 27 2017.

AVATAR land concept art

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PorterRedkeyJul 16, 2017

Sigourney Weavers says that there is a good reason to make 4 sequels in this article. Looks like the movies will be filmed in 2 shifts. http://collider.com/avatar-sequels-filming-sigourney-weaver/#images

drcaseyJul 07, 2017

I feel like Disney could have done something so much cooler with that land in Animal Kingdom! Pandora has gotten pretty good reviews from what I've seen, but Avatar just seems so irrelevant to me

WhatJaneSaysJul 06, 2017

I'm not betting against him, I'm betting that he is very willing to take his story in an unconventional direction. That's why I think we'll only see the first 2 of the potential sequels as theatrical released movies. The others will likely end up as something different, depending on what ever technology he decides to back this go around. The series is literally about becoming an "avatar" so if some other avenue of release furthers that story telling he'll try to make that happen.

DisneyRoyJul 06, 2017

Yea. That's never a smart move.

twebber55Jul 05, 2017

betting against jc huh?

No NameJul 05, 2017

I was under the impression that they were filming 2 and 3 first, then 4 and 5 later. Why else would the release dates be 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025. Why the gap between? Anyway, I think making Avatar sequels is a poor decision. I'm betting on under as well.

TyTrapJul 01, 2017

I don't think James would settle for anything less than theatrical releases for all of his films. Home releases are important for after the theatrical run but I believe his main intentions are for the films to be watched on the big screen.

Cosmic CommandoJun 25, 2017

Especially with these movies, the cost of getting the actors in front of the cameras is just the beginning. With Jake fully in his avatar body, there could be even less "human time" than in the first movie. And all the environments are CGI.

PorterRedkeyJun 24, 2017

Marketing just adds to the crazy price tag of movie's today. I also think you are underestimating the cost, labor and time it takes to add the CGI. Every frame in that movie will have CGI added. Filming will most likely not be the major cost of the new Avatar movies. There are no exotic locations he needs to travel to film - the locations are all made in computers. All, or almost all, of these movies will be shot on a sound stage. That saves big coin during shooting. However, I want to state again - I believe all the movies will get made. I also think Avatar 2 will be a huge success, but I am just going on Cameron's track record.

GoofGoofJun 24, 2017

I'm just looking at it from a cost standpoint. If they spend the money to film all of the footage for 4 movies the bulk of the costs (outside of marketing) are sunk. They still need to edit the movies and add some additional effects but those costs are negligible compared to the money lost by not releasing the film in theaters. Major tent pole releases spend $200M+ on marketing these days but If the 2nd film bombs they could still release films 3-5 in theaters with limited marketing budgets and hope to generate interest through word of mouth and social media marketing instead of buying TV spots. They would still likely make a whole lot more than going straight to DVD with the same films.

PorterRedkeyJun 24, 2017

Filming and making a movie are 2 different things. Filming is just one part of making a movie.

PorterRedkeyJun 24, 2017

No, they are being filmed at the same time. They will be edited separately. Sure all the material will be shot, but in addition to the editing, there will be effects added, sound mixing, color correction, etc. My point was that the footage needed to be shot with actors (live and mo-cap) will be there, but it still has to be made into a movie. If Avatar 2 just does okay, he may consolidate the footage he shot for 3, 4, and 5 into 2 movies instead of the three planned. The story arc would end at the same place as it was originally planned, it will just be a total of 4 movies instead of 5. That said, I offered this as the only scenario where Cameron doesn't make the 4 new films as planned. I fully believe that all of the films will be made and shown in theaters.

twebber55Jun 24, 2017

they re getting made at the same time

GoofGoofJun 24, 2017

I thought they were filming all 4 at the same time. The bulk of the money on production will be spent so why would they not release all 4 in theaters? Even if the 2nd movie does just OK releasing the other 3 would still help to recover some of the sunk costs. I can't see the film doing so bad that it wouldn't be worth a little marketing costs to release the final 3. If they were filming the movies one at a time I could see the last few not getting green lit if the next one bombs.