James Cameron, the director of the highest-grossing film of all time "Avatar," is creating its sequel "Avatar 2" which is set to release on December 25, 2017.
Cameron had made "Avatar" for more than fifteen years before it was released on the big screen, where it grossed over $2.7 billion. Because of its massive success, the award-winning director planned to make sequels for the blockbuster film. However, his initial idea to open the back-to-back sequels for 2014 and 2015 had to change. The first sequel is instead slated to be released in 2017, Flickering Myth reports.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cameron shared some updates on the upcoming "Avatar 2."
"I'm in the process of doing another pass through all three scripts right now. Just refining. That's in parallel with the design process," the director said. "The design process is very mature at this point. We've been designing for about a year and a half. All the characters, settings and creatures are all pretty much [set]."
When asked if the process of creating "Avatar 2" turned out to be easier following the technology innovation used in the first movie, he replied: "No, because you have to challenge yourself. Obviously, expectations are going to be very high on these films, especially on "Avatar 2", to make sure it wasn't just some big fluke the first time. So we've got to deliver. I've created a nice rod for my own back, so they say."
Could there be a pressure making the sequel since another hit franchise film, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," is set to release days from now? Recent reports claimed that J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Wars film will beat Cameron's expensive film creation "Avatar." Aside from saying "Avatar" was not some "big fluke," Cameron has not responded to reports comparing his blockbuster film to the highly-anticipated "Star Wars" movie.
Meanwhile, "Avatar 2" will show multiple returns of the dead. Zoe Zaldana as Neytiri and Sam Worthington as Jake Sully, together with Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang, were previously shown dead in the first "Avatar" film. In the next installment, their characters still exist.