"Well, 2018 is not happening. We haven't announced a firm release date. What people have to understand is that this is a cadence of releases. So, we're not making ‘Avatar 2,' we're making ‘Avatar 2,' ‘3,' ‘4,' and ‘5.' It's an epic undertaking. It's not unlike building the Three Gorges dam," said Cameron in an interview with The Toronto Star.
The franchise began in 2009, with the release of the original, which starred Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. Worthington and Saldana will reprise their roles, while Weaver will play another role, since her character died in the original.
Cameron continued, by saying, "So I know where I'm going to be for the next eight years of my life. It's not an unreasonable time frame if you think about it. It took us four-and-a-half years to make one movie and now we're making four. We're full tilt boogie right now. This is my day job and pretty soon we'll be 24/7. We're pretty well designed on all our creatures and sets. It's pretty exciting stuff. I wish I could share with the world. But we have to preserve a certain amount of showmanship and we're going to draw that curtain when the time is right."
The original Avatar won three Oscars in 2010 and earned $2.8 billion worldwide.
