'Avatar 2' Delay: James Cameron Is Not Worried About Long Gaps Between Sequels

Filmmaker James Cameron recently explained the reason why he is not worried about the long gaps between the "Avatar" sequels.

Cameron has been known to be the type of director who takes a lot time in working on his films. Since he started his career in the film industry in 1978, he only directed eight feature films, and only one of them was released in this century — "Avatar."

It took the director 15 years to release "Avatar" in 2009, but it ended up breaking box-office records around the world and ushering in an era of 3D movies. Since then, people knew that a sequel was going to be released in the future; they just didn't know when.

Since the announcement that a sequel was in the works, "Avatar 2" has been delayed several times. Now, it seems it is taking 11 years for the first "Avatar" sequel to arrive in theaters, with "Avatar 2" getting a definitive release date of December 2020.

Long gaps between sequels and production delays are viewed negatively in Hollywood. However, in an interview with CNN, Cameron revealed that he is not too concerned about the long gap between the original "Avatar" movie and its sequels, saying:

"It was a seven-year gap between The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, [a] seven-year gap between Alien and Aliens. It's gonna be obviously more like a ten-year gap between Avatar and Avatar 2. But Avatar 2 you are going to with not the promise, but the certainty of three more films beyond that, and that's a very different concept with the audience. And a lot of the delay has been around creating that overall vision."

After all these years of developing the sequels, things finally seem to be on track with the "Avatar" film franchise, with the casting process already underway and filming expected to commence this fall.

All planned four "Avatar" sequels are scheduled to be released back-to-back, starting with "Avatar 2" in December 2020.