James Cameron confirms 'Avatar 2' filming is complete, also gives an update on 'Avatar 3'

Avatar 2 is among the most anticipated upcoming movies. Like many other big-budget projects, it has faced production delay due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. It resumed filming in July 2020 in New Zealand, being the first big project to do so. Now director James Cameron has announced that 'Avatar' sequel's filming is complete, with just small portion of Avatar 3 left.

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Avatar 2 filming wrapped, Avatar 3 to be completed soon

In a recent conversation with Arnold Schwarzenegger on his YouTube channel, James Cameron spoke about the upcoming Avatar sequels. He said that they lost about four and a half months of production due to COVID-19. As a result of that, they have rolled around one more full year for a release in December of 2022 for Avatar 2, which has already been announced. The filmmaker mentioned that the delay does not mean he has an extra year to finish the film. He stated that the day they deliver Avatar 2, the team will just start working on finishing Avatar 3.

James Cameron revealed that he is currently down in New Zealand busy shooting. He added that they are shooting the remaining part of the live-action sequences for the movies. He noted that they have got about ten percent left to go. The filmmaker asserted that they are a hundred percent complete on Avatar 2 and are sort of ninety-five percent complete on Avatar 3. The Oscar-winning director said that they are very lucky because they chose New Zealand as their production site years ago.

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Avatar 2 is said to include a lot of underwater sequences. The team spent months into production and filming those scenes, and even shared pictures from the sets. James Cameron is quite familiar with underwater shooting with his directorial experience in Titanic. Both Avatar 2 and 3 commenced filming in 2019.

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Avatar is planned to have five-films in its franchise. The filming of the two sequeals are almost complete. Pre-production work on VFX, recording, score and others are still left. While Avatar 2 is set for December 2022 release, Avatar 3 is scheduled to release on December 20, 2024. The fourth and fifth instalment are eyeing for December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028 release.

Avatar 2 cast includes Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana reprising their roles as Jake and Neytiri. New members include Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Jamie Flatters, Britain Dalton and Trinity Bliss. Plot details on the project are kept under wraps.