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No, The Avatar Sequels Haven’t Wrapped Filming

It’s been close to a decade since James Cameron’s Avatar hit theaters, shattered box office records and got people talking about the continuation of the franchise. With the second and third Avatar sequels set to be released in 2020 and 2021, the filmmaker has been hard at work on getting them ready for audiences. While a few months ago Cameron himself announced the principal cast finally wrapped filming, apparently, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Here’s what he said:

Whoops! While his own words seemed to indicate Avatar 2 & 3 had finished up principal photography, it looks like James Cameron was only talking about the motion capture portion of the films. Per his recent interview with The Empire Film Podcast, there is still about five months’ worth of action sequences to get cracking on.

Considering Avatar 2 still has almost two years to go before it comes to theaters, it’s not surprising there’s still some work to be done on the big-budget visual spectacle. Since the two sequels are being filmed back-to-back to ensure Avatar 3 can be released one year after Avatar 2, the production work needed is double.

The action sequences will reportedly start filming in April, putting the expected official wrap in August or September and leaving almost another year for post-production to get going.

The upcoming sequels are said to be standalone films, with their own encompassing adventure that doesn’t demand audiences to see the movie prior and will each wrap up by the end. While James Cameron originally envisioned the Avatar movies to be a trilogy, he has four sequels planned total.

Avatar 4 and 5 have not yet be greenlit (probably to see how moviegoers like the other Avatar movies first), though James Cameron has the scripts ready and are planned to be released in 2024 and 2025.

There hasn’t been much disclosed about what’s in store for Avatar, but we do know the film’s will center on Sam Worthington as Jake Sully and Zoe Saldana as Neytiri as they build a family. Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Giovanni Ribisi are returning along with Kate Winslet and Edie Falco joining the franchise.

The titles Avatar: The Way of Water, Avatar: The Seed Bearer, Avatar: The Tulkun Rider and Avatar: The Quest for Eywa are reportedly under consideration, though official names have not been given to the action flicks. The first Avatar sequel comes to theaters on December 18, 2020.

James Cameron Says ‘Avatar 2’ Story Goes to ‘Dark Places’, Calls the Four Sequels an ‘Emotional Rollercoaster’

Did you hear? There are several Avatar sequels coming out! It feels as if we’ve been talking about them for almost a decade…because we have. But James Cameron‘s big, expensive, expansive sci-fi epics will soon begin rolling out in theaters, and we’re learning more and more about them as time marches on. Cameron recently dropped some knowledge regarding the emotional stakes of the upcoming films – from the “dark places” characters go to in Avatar 2, to the “emotional rollercoaster” of the franchise as a whole.

While speaking with the Empire podcast, James Cameron provided some vague but potentially enticing details about the many Avatar sequels awaiting us in the not-too-distant-future. In regards to Avatar 2, due out next December, Cameron revealed that star Sam Worthington had to go to some dark places with his character, Jake Sully. As Cameron tells it, Jake’s marriage to Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) is pushed to the breaking point due to some dispute. A big part of the turmoil between the couple will be seen through the eyes of their many children.

“There’s a three-page argument scene between Jake and Neytiri, a marital dispute, very, very critical to the storyline,” Cameron said. “I wound up shooting it all from the point of view of the eight year old hiding under the structure and peeking in.”

This is all part of the heightened emotional stakes the characters go through throughout the course of the next four sequels.

“Having gone through the experience with [Sam Worthington] on Avatar,” Cameron continued, “I now knew how to write the Jake character going forward across the emotional rollercoaster of the next four movies. It’s been tough on him. He’s done two pictures back to back now, because we did 2 and 3 together. He had to go to some dark places.”

Cameron’s underlining of the emotional through-line in the sequels reads like a deliberate attempt to prove that Avatar is more than just pretty pictures. Whenever I think of the first Avatar, I immediately think of the visuals, and the special effects – and little else. I can barely recall the storyline, or the character motivations – and I’m sure I’m not alone. Perhaps Cameron is aware of this, and determined to make sure the sequels avoid this problem by upping the emotional, personal elements on display.

Avatar 2, featuring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, and more opens December 18, 2020. After that, look for Avatar 3 on December 17, 2021; Avatar 4 on December 20, 2024; and Avatar 5 on December 19, 2025.

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Chris Evans and Channing Tantum Were Almost Cast in Avatar

In a recent interview with Empire, director and visionary James Cameron has revealed that MCU star Chris Evans and 21 Jump Street actor Channing Tatum were the two actors up against Sam Worthington for the lead role of Jake Sully in the original Avatar.

“Chris Evans, and Sam, and Channing Tatum. That was my choice,” Cameron said. “I really liked Channing’s appeal. I liked Chris’ appeal. They were both great guys. But Sam had a quality of voice and a quality of intensity. Everybody did about the same on all the material through the script, except for the final speech where he stands up and says, ‘This is our land, ride now, go as fast as the wind can carry you.’ That whole thing. I would have followed him into battle. And I wouldn’t have followed the other guys. They’ve since gone onto fantastic careers and all that, but Sam was ready. He was ready.”

RELATED: Edie Falco Joins Avatar Sequels as General Ardmore

Sam Worthington will be returning for Avatar sequels alongside Zoe Saldana, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, Stephen Lang, Matt Gerald and Sigourney Weaver. Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis and Oona Chaplin are also joining the sequels.

Filming officially started on Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 on September 25, 2017. Shortly after, James Cameron announced young cast members for the sequel, which include the Sully family and children from the Metkayina Na’vi clan who live near ocean reefs, led by Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). The only actor who will appear in live-action playing a non-CGI character is Jack Champion as Javier “Spider” Socorro, a human teen born at the Hell’s Gate military complex seen in the first film.

RELATED: Main Cast Has Wrapped Production on Avatar Sequels

20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment previously announced release dates for the four Avatar sequels. Avatar 2 will be coming to theaters on December 18, 2020, and will be followed by Avatar 3 on December 17, 2021. Filming will then begin on Avatar 4 and Avatar 5, which will be released on December 20, 2024 and December 19, 2025, with Cameron’s caveat that they won’t make 4 and 5 if 2 and 3 aren’t successful.

Released in 2009, the first Avatar film remains the highest-grossing film worldwide with over $2.7 billion in box office grosses. Titanic was previously the record holder with $2.186 billion worldwide.