'Avatar 2' Delayed Despite Planned Production This Year

It looks like the wait for "Avatar 2" will be longer even though production for the highly anticipated sequel to James Cameron's 2009 hit will begin this year.

Sigourney Weaver, who will be back in her role as Grace in the long-gestating follow-up, revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that filming will indeed begin later this year.

"We're starting! We're starting training, and we're starting — hmm, I probably can't say anything," the actress said. "We will be actually shooting it by the fall," she went on to say.

Weaver had doubts about "Avatar 2" making it to its Christmas 2018 launch, which is the third release date it was assigned to after several delays.

It turns out that the star was right because even though Cameron has completed the scripts for the film and the three other follow-ups, the sequel is still not going to beat that deadline. Last month, the director told Toronto Star that "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," he explained.

Cameron emphasizes that he is not just working on "Avatar 2," but is simultaneously working on all four films to make sure they are consistent. This was his approach with the scriptwriting, which is why the task basically took over his life.

"It's an epic undertaking ... 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," Cameron went on to say.

The director has said early this year that motion capture work for "Avatar 2" could kick off as early as August, which is in line with what Weaver has said.

As for the release date, fans should not expect an "Avatar" movie to hit the big screen next year.