Fans anticipating "Avatar 2" by 2017 will not like the news. The creative team has decided to move its release date to 2018 because of production issues. However, other fans think that the movie would not be able to topple a goliath, "Star Wars: Episode VIII," thus the change in the date.
It was previously reported that movie director James Cameron wants to feature how magnificent Pandora is, and in order to do so, he needs more time, hence they moved the release of the sequel to 2018. It also mentioned that another rumor going around is that it doesn't want to go head-to-head with "Star Wars: Episode VIII"; the previous "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" managed to break many box office records. However, "Star Wars" didn't come close to "Avatar" for the worldwide box office record.
It is not just about competition, reportedly; the decision to move the release is also about the production process involved in the movie, especially that an extra sequel was added. Cameron mentioned that he wanted to tell more about the "Avatar" story, so instead of just three sequels, he decided to add another one. Overall, there will be eight hours of the films. He said, "We have decided to embark on a truly massive cinematic process. We began to bump up against the limitations for our art form," The Hollywood Reporter stated last April.
He also said that he plans to shoot all five sequels all at the same time, and not just one after the other, which is more prone to production nightmare, not to mention the technological and logistical issues they would face.
As of now, "Avatar 2" will arrive by 2018, "Avatar 3" by 2020, "Avatar 4" in 2022 and "'Avatar 5" in 2023, if everything will be smooth in the production process.
