Remember Winter 2022 / 2023 when we all predicted that Avatar had slipped so far from the cultural zeitgeist that it would barely make a ripple when the sequel was released? Then Avatar: The Way of Water made $2.3 billion worldwide even against a massively depressed box office landscape, in the process making us look a bit silly?
Well, we say “all”, as there were a couple of Outposters who steadfastly told us we were full of crap, and were proved entirely correct. We are not infallible, just usually right. Let’s chalk this one up to experience.
We always knew that a third instalment was coming, along with a fourth and a fifth. Principal photography on the live-action elements of Avatar 3 may have been completed at the same time as Avatar: The Way Of Water was filmed, but with these movies that is just the start. Now in post-production, director James Cameron says it will remain there for a long time.
Now based in New Zealand while he gets Pandora out of his system, Cameron was at a conference in Wellington and he gave an update on the status of the film, saying he is currently in the midst of a “very hectic two years of post-production”.
Avatar 3 will move away from the ocean-dwelling Na’vi and introduce the fire Na’vi, a tribe from the volcanic mountains of Pandora. So that will be Earth, Water, and Fire dealt with, leaving only Air. of the four elements. If you subscribe to the theory there are five elements, the Space will remain. Avatar 5 featuring the Na’vi in space? Like Battlefield Earth when the savages can miraculously fly Harrier jump jets?
Jake’s son Lo’ak, played by Britain Dalton, will be the narrator of the third movie. I have no idea what, as I am yet to watch the second movie.
Whatever happens, maybe we won’t be so quick to dismiss James Cameron and Avatar again. The theatrical release is currently slated for December 19th, 2025 and Avatar 3 has a budget of $250 million.
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