James Cameron is returning to Pandora for three more sequels. According to The Wrap, Cameron is planning on releasing the first sequel, "Avatar 2," December 2016, the third for December 2017 and the fourth with a release date of December 2018. The original release date for the second "Avatar" was expected to be out in December 2014 but had to be pushed back.
The director revealed that he would be getting new screenwriters to help him create the sequels. Josh Friedman, who created "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" is reportedly on board as well as Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, who wrote "Rise of the Planets of the Apes" and Shane Salerno who worked with Cameron on "Fantastic Voyage."
According to several reports, all three sequels will be shot at the time and Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington are both expected to return. It's not clear what other characters will be returning for the sequels.
"Building upon the world we created with 'Avatar' has been a rare and incredibly rewarding experience. In writing new films, I've come to realize that 'Avatar's' world, story and characters have become even richer than I anticipated, and it became apparent that two films would not be enough to capture everything I wanted to put on screen," Cameron said in a statement. "And to help me continue to expand this universe, I'm pleased to bring aboard Amanda, Rick, Shane and Josh - all writers I've long admired - to join me in completing the films screenplays."
Plots and the directions of the three sequels have not been revealed but Screen Crush is reporting that "Avatar 4" is going to be a prequel.
"I have an idea for a fourth... I haven't really put pen to paper on it, but basically it goes back to the early expeditions of Pandora, and kind of what went wrong with the humans and the Na'vi and what that was like to be an explorer and living in that world," Cameron told MTV. "Because when we drop in, even in the first film 'Avatar 1,' as it will be known in the future, we're dropping into a process that's 35 years into a whole colonization... The only thing left to do is go back and see what it was like on those first expeditions and create some new characters that then became legacy characters in later films... it's a plan."
"Avatar" was the highest grossing film of all time ranking in a total of $2.8 billion worldwide. It is also the top selling movie for Blu-ray discs of all time.
