Avatar 2: What We Know So Far

We've seen a lot of absolutely gigantic blockbusters over the last five years, from the record-shattering performance of James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy to Peyton Reed's summer hit Ant-Man to Zack Snyder's Superman reboot Man of Steel, but none of them have been able to come anywhere close to the high bar set by James Cameron's Avatar. Released in December 2009, the film continues to hold the record as the highest-grossing movie of all time, pulling in $2.782 billion worldwide. We have been patiently waiting for sequels to arrive ever since, and while the filmmaking team behind the franchise has been taking its time, they have some absolutely gigantic plans for the future.



Just like we've done for Captain America: Civil War, Batman V Superman, and many other major blockbuster movies, we have put together a special guide to help all of you keep track of the latest developments of Avatar 2 and beyond. Who from the cast of the first movie is coming back? Where will the new story take us? Read on to find out!



What Is The Avatar 2 Release Date?

Right now, the plan is to release Avatar 2 sometime in December 2018. The only problem with this forecasting is that the film has missed several production start dates and potential release dates already. With all the delays the film has experienced, plus the new plan to film all four sequels at once, it's entirely possible that the movie will blow through this proposed release date once again.



What Is The Avatar 2 Rating?

Films with major blockbuster potential like Avatar 2 usually want to get as many butts into those theater seats as possible. So, while there's been no word on the actual story of the sequel, it's unlikely that it will drift into Rated R territory. We should also note that the original film received a PG-13 rating, and it's a good bet that Avatar 2, and the three sequels planned after it, will attempt to stick with the same rating.



The Director

The first Avatar was truly a passion project for James Cameron, as the filmmaker spent years and years developing both the script and the technological advancements that needed to be made, so you didn't really expect him to hand off the sequels to someone else, did you? Cameron will be coming back for not just Avatar 2, but for 3, 4 and 5 as well. He has some big plans for the technology side of things, and has talked about both filming at higher frame rates using performance capture underwater. You can be sure that Avatar 2 will push the boundaries of what can be accomplished in modern filmmaking. Cameron wants to show that the first film's success was not a fluke. The director is certainly not expecting success to come automatically to the Avatar sequels simply because the first one did well.



The Script

James Cameron was the lone credited screenwriter on the first Avatar movie, but for the four sequels he has brought in a full team of collaborators who have helped him break down all upcoming chapters of the franchise. Josh Friedman, who penned Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds remake and was one of the key people behind the television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, was the first one to sign on, but he was followed by Rise of the Planet of the Apes veterans Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and Armageddon's Shane Salerno, all of whom will be working side-by-side with Cameron. Major plot details haven't been revealed yet, but the director has said that the sequels will introduce "whole new worlds, habitats, and cultures," which very well could mean that we will get to meet some different kinds of intelligent alien species.



The major challenge that Cameron has to face with the script is that while he's trying to write one story, he's also trying to write four movies. It sounds like the script for Avatar 2 will not be a single story, but part of a larger one that will stretch through all of the upcoming sequels. Doing this has proven to be difficult, which the primary reason the film has taken as long as it has. He wants to be sure that the narrative is sound between all four films, while obviously also being consistent with the first. Since the plan is to film all four movies at the same time he has to make sure the scripts for all four films are ready to shoot before he begins filming Avatar 2. Otherwise, he runs the risk of not putting something in this movie that he'll need somewhere down the road.



With so many details about Avatar 2 and the other sequels still scarce, we recently got an update on the content of those films from James Cameron. While speaking about Toruk, the Cirque du Soleil Avatar prequel, Cameron spilled the beans on a major theme for the planned films: family.




The storyline in the sequels really follows Jake and Neytiri and their children. It's more of a family saga about the struggle with the humans.



Now, we have no idea if this means that Jake and Neytiri will already have children when Avatar 2 opens, or if we'll slowly watch them build a family over the course of the sequels, but you can't deny that it sounds interesting.





Jake Sully

This will come as a surprise to absolutely nobody, but the main character of Avatar might be coming back for the franchise's sequels. Sam Worthington, who has spent the years since his breakout role in the original sci-fi blockbuster starring in movies like Clash of the Titans, Man on a Ledge and Sabotage, had signed a deal that would have seen him playing human-turned-Na'vi Jake Sully for the foreseeable future. The Aussie actor was even the first to reveal the production start date in November 2013, saying, "I'll be grateful if it finishes. I think Jim is building the ship to Pandora, to be honest." But, now that we know the Avatar sequels will each tell different stories that simply form a complete saga, it's unclear if there will even be a role for Worthington in any of the planned films. Of course, production didn't start anywhere near November 2013, and has, in fact, still not begun to any significant degree, so casting on any of the sequels could change at any time.