Following the news that Disney and Lucasfilm officially moved "Star Wars Episode VIII" to Dec. 15, 2017, a report from the Wrap now confirms that "Avatar 2" will no longer be hitting its December 2017 release date and has been pushed back to an undetermined release schedule.
A separate report points out that the reason "Star Wars Episode VIII" was delayed was due to the massive box office success that "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" received, which also saw a December release. It is likely that the eighth film in the space-fantasy series has been moved in order to give it a bigger box office push.
This means, however, that "Avatar 2" and "Star Wars Episode VIII" would be competing against each other for IMAX and 3D tickets. According to a report from /Film, the release date for "Avatar 2" was already sketchy to begin with and it is only natural for the studio to push it out of the way instead of rushing production to go up against "Star Wars."
It is noted in the report that "Avatar 2" hasn't even begun production yet. There is also the matter of director James Cameron wanting to shoot "Avatar 2" and the two follow-up films simultaneously and then release them one year apart. This would require Cameron to shoot all three films before the first one can get ready for release.
This will also be the second delay for "Avatar 2." The film was initially set to release in December this year but was moved a full year back due to Cameron refining the screenplay and developing the motion-capture technology required to shoot the film the way he wants to.
That being said, 20th Century Fox has not yet given a definite release window for "Avatar 2," although it is now speculated to release in summer 2018.
"Avatar 2" will bring back lead stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana while also bringing back both Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang despite the latter two dying in the first film.
