Now that Tenet is off the table for the immediate future, it’s time to get realistic about how the rest of 2020 will shake out: Disney released an adjusted release calendar on Thursday, moving upcoming Star Wars and Avatar movies back a year. According to Deadline, the first Avatar sequel, and your next trip to Pandora, will now release December 16, 2022. Avatar 3 moves to December 20, 2024. Avatar 4 moves to December 18, 2026. And we’ll be seated in movie theaters for Avatar 5, pending (even more) divine intervention, on December 22, 2028.
Director James Cam’ron addressed the date shifts in a note to fans, in a mixture of English and the Na’vi language: “As many of you are aware, due to COVID-19, we were forced into an unexpected lengthy delay in starting the live action filming we are currently doing in New Zealand,” he wrote. “What most of you likely do not know is that the pandemic is still preventing us from being allowed to recommence most of our virtual production work on stages in Los Angeles. That work is just as critical to the films as the live action work.” Before the coronavirus, the Avatar sequels were (allegedly) set to be completed by (at least one of) the many completion timelines set.
Congratulations to planet earth, which will have to be in existence long enough for James Cameron’s epic, five-part movie series.
