The success of Avatar: The Way of Water ensured audiences can look forward to taking more trips to the world of Pandora. Given the performance of the franchise’s second installment – it’s the third highest-grossing film of all time, the highest-grossing film of all time in Europe, and the winner of an Oscar Award for Best Visual Effects – Disney’s decision is no surprise as it proves that the franchise has massive audience appeal.
Jon Landau, who produces the epic science fiction film alongside creator James Cameron, has revealed that the first act of the franchise’s fourth installment has already been shot because it will feature a significant time leap. Landau revealed this at a Q&A session at a press event for Avatar: The Way of Water’s home release, saying:
We did 95% of movies two, three, and the first act of part four. Now, why the first act only? Because in our narrative, there’s a big time jump there and we needed to do all the kids while they were this age because we can’t suddenly have them be older concurrently in our narrative. So we went out and did that all collectively and if we went into a set that had scenes from all three movies, we shot that out at one time.”
Landau explained Cameron’s approach to the creation of the Avatar films and the technologies used. A long-time James Cameron collaborator, he also discussed some of the challenges they faced, including enlisting Simon Franglen to write the film’s music following the unfortunate loss of James Horner, who wrote the music for the first Avatar film, to a plane crash in 2015.
Zoe Saldaña recently provided a surprising update about Avatar 3. One of the highest-grossing actresses in Hollywood, she stated they’d finish shooting for the film this summer, in contrast to Cameron’s claims that the franchise’s third installment is done and essentially in post-production.
When Avatar 3 is done, Cameron hopes to take some time away to work on a passion project. The film, The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back, will be based on a book of the same name by Charles R. Pellegrino.
The director thinks the project will be more timely now than ever given the ongoing war in Ukraine as well as the resurgent nationalism wave currently sweeping across the world.
In other Avatar news, a Twitter user recently leaked information that Ubisoft’s Avatar game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, is ready and will soon be available for pre-order.
The next installment of the franchise, Avatar 3, is slated for release on December 20, 2024.
