'Avatar' Sequels Pushed Back Two Years

When "Avatar" came out at the tail end of 2009, it wasn't long before the movie went on to become the single most successful of all time (not adjusting for inflation). Naturally, any film that makes that kind of money immediately leaves studios thinking about sequels. Thankfully, writer/director James Cameron still had plenty of new places to go on the planet of Pandora and was more than willing to start work on not one but two sequels.

The existence of these sequels has never been in doubt. However, producer Jon Landau recently made comments to Entertainmentwise.com indicating the first sequel wouldn't see theaters until 2016.
Cameron had previously indicated he was looking at 2014 for the release date of "Avatar 2," so this new date pushes things back an additional two years.

Landau did not give any reason for the delay, which leaves room for some speculation as to why Cameron and his crew need another two years. The most likely reason would be they need more time to get the technology where to an optimal level. The original film accomplished some amazing visual feats, creating the alien planet of Pandora in a way that felt like a true living world. However, earlier reports indicated that the sequels will move beyond the jungles and explore Pandora's oceans. Water and underwater scenes are notoriously difficult to create using computer graphics, and some more work may be needed to bring things up to Cameron's standards.

The more hopeful may take the delay to mean that Cameron is going to take the time to squeeze in another film before jumping back to the world of "Avatar." Cameron has several other projects in the works that he might try to get made with those two extra years. There's his long-planned adaptation of the Japanese comic book "Battle Angel Alita," though that would likely require almost as much computer effects work as the "Avatar" sequels. For that reason, his project about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as told through the eyes of survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi would be a more likely possibility. Cameron met with Yamaguchi shortly before his death in 2010.

It's possible that Cameron may even be doing both. If he were to tell Yamaguchi's story, which would be a smaller and more intimate film, it's something he could do while his effects team continues its work on the look of "Avatar 2." Though this is all speculation, the question remains: Will this delay adversely affect the film?

There's still excitement for "Avatar," but one of its big selling points was the cutting edge 3D, something that has been undermined by the ensuing glut of often inferior 3D films. The novelty has already worn off, and it'll be something Cameron will have to overcome with his sequels.

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