James Cameron created a sensation when he released Avatar in December of 2009. Fans have waited patiently ever since for Cameron to get around to making the sequel, and were excited back in August when the director promised Avatar 2 for December 2016.
According to star Sam Worthington, the answer to that question “When?” is about one full year from now. Variety picked up on an interview that the actor did with an Australia radio station called NovaFM and revealed both when and how they will be shooting the sequels for Avatar. “We are going to start this time next year and we will do two, three and four,” he said. “In one shot, we’ll do them simultaneously. I’ll be grateful if it finishes.” He added, “I think Jim is building the ship to Pandora, to be honest.”
This, of course, won’t be the first time that a major blockbuster franchise has filmed a bunch of movies at the same time. Peter Jackson decided that this method was the best way for him to make his Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Making three movies in one go could also suggest that all three will be playing out one big over-arching storyline while each of the individual movies have full narratives of their own. Hopefully this means that Cameron and screenwriters Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds), Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planets of the Apes), and Shane Salerno (Savages) are putting more thought into the story than what we saw last time. They’ll certainly have a ridiculous budget to work with thanks to the box office earnings of the first movie.
