James Cameron announced yet another sequel in his planned follow-up to “Avatar.”
Appearing onstage at ComicCon 2016 at 20th Century Fox, the prolific franchise director was introduced by studio co-CEO’s Stacey Snider and Jim Gianopulos where he dropped a full release schedule for the new films.
“Avatar 2” hits Christmas 2018, followed by “Avatar 3” at Christmas 2020, “Avatar 4” for Christmas 2022 and “Avatar 5” dated for Christmas 2023.
Cameron has been developing his followup films to his monstrous 2009 hit — which remains the highest grossing movie of all time worldwide (though “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” did dethrone “Avatar” from its record-breaking top spot domestically).
With every shift in the plan over the past three years, the scope of the series has mushroomed, with plans of a World of Pandora theme park, a touring Avatar-themed Cirque du Soleil show, and graphic novels also in the works.
The release date for “Avatar 2” has been pushed back twice before Cameron shared his slate of projected debut dates on Thursday. And with the addition of “Avatar 5” the vision has expanded even more.
It’s not yet clear whether Cameron and his Lightstorm Entertainment producing partner Jon Landau still intend to shoot the sequels at the same time in New Zealand.
Leads Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana signed on for the trilogy in 2014, which is expected to pick up where the original left off. Cameron has indicated much of it may be set on a moon of the planet Pandora and underwater.
