Disney, realizing its quantity vs. quality equation was all over the place, recently announced an entire raft of rescheduled releases. While this may seem more sensible than their previous carpet bombing of cinema schedules with massive franchise releases, the movement out of the Avatar sequels makes us feel simultaneously old, and like we are living in the future.
Avatar 3 was to open in December 2024, with Avatar 4 in December 2026 and Avatar 5 in December 2028.
Now they will open in December 2025, December 2029, and December 2031 respectively. December 2031? 2031? Twenty-thirty-one?.The year two-thousand and thirty-one! There is a very real possibility some of our Outposters might not make that. If you had told the younger version of some of us, as we stared wide-eyed at R2-D2 and C-3PO escaping the Rebel Blockade Runner, that we would be going to see a sequel to a movie in 2031 then we might have reasonably expected to teleport there. Or be effortlessly whisked there by a pair of flying pants.
Instead, the most futuristic thing we can expect to do is perhaps have range anxiety about whether our Net Zero imposed electric car will get us there, and hope the Supreme Sheriff processed our permit to leave our fifteen-minute city and travel to the theater in Sector 7G.
We aren’t the only ones reacting with disbelief. Actress Zoe Saldana posted her reaction on Instagram (because of course she did!) and said:
“Great! I’m gonna be 53 when the last Avatar comes out. I was 27 when I shot the very first Avatar.”
Avatar 5 will see director James Cameron at 76, Sam Worthington at 54, Sigourney Weaver at 81, and Last Movie Outpost imprisoned for Wrong-Think. Still, at least this means we have a few more years to crack the code as to how these movies make so much damn money with such little wider impact.
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