James Cameron takes his sweet time making movies, but it did appear that he was getting his stuff together when it came to the many Avatar sequels he almost didn’t make. Or so it seemed. Suffice to say if you were hoping to be done with the series by the end of this decade, think again. On Tuesday, Disney revealed that they were reshuffling some of its release calendar. The most prominent changes were its three Avatar sequels, the last of which has been delayed a whopping three years. And one of its stars can’t believe how old she’ll be when it finally comes out.
As per Entertainment Weekly, Zoe Saldana — who has played Na’vi princess Neytiri since the first, which came out all the way back in 2009 — took to her Twitter Stories with some weary sarcasm after learning the fifth Avatar won’t come out until 2031.
“Great,” Saldaña wrote. “I’m gonna be 53 when the last Avatar comes out. I was 27 when I shot the very first Avatar.”
The Avatar delays are broken down thusly, courtesy of EW:
While Avatar 3 was only pushed back by a single year, moving from Dec. 20, 2024 to Dec. 19, 2025, the final two installments in the franchise were delayed by a few years. Avatar 4 went from Dec. 18, 2026 to Dec. 21, 2029, while Avatar 5 moved from Dec. 22, 2028 to Dec. 19, 2031.
Cameron began working on Avatar in 1994, when he penned an 80-page treatment. He didn’t start in earnest until 2005, when technology was beginning to make the project more of a reality. Should the fifth outing really emerge in 2031 — and, given Cameron’s history, that’s a big, big if — and if he doesn’t decide to make even more than the currently planned quintet, then he would have been actively working on the series for 26 years. If you include the initial treatment, that’s 37 years.
For now, though, fans can expect to return to Pandora in two-and-a-half years…unless Cameron pushes it back further…which he very well could.
(Via EW)