By Mitchell Earnshaw
Last week, James Cameron officially launched production on the long-awaited Avatar sequels. We now know there will be four films, released in 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025. The films collectively will have an unprecedented $1 billion-dollar price tag.
So, the big question is, what’s taken so long? In case anyone has forgotten, Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time by a wide margin, which single-handedly ushered in the concept of 3D to modern cinema. Originally announced back in 2010, Avatar 2 and 3 were planned to be released in December 2014 and 2015 respectively. However, as these dates inched closer, it became clear that this date was never going to happen. The films were pushed back several times, but Cameron says that these new dates are now locked in.
It seems that the delays were mostly due to issues surrounding scripting the films, with Cameron, in an interview with Associated Press saying that “There’s a layer of complexity in getting the story to work as a saga across three films that you don’t get when you’re making a stand-alone film”. However, it could be argued that the reason for the delay is of a more personal nature for Cameron. He told EW that he places high expectations on himself for the sequels, to prove that the original “wasn’t just some big fluke”.
Perhaps Cameron is aware of the cooling of opinion towards the original film. When released, Avatar was met with critical acclaim, won a raft of awards, and was even considered to be the front runner for the best picture Oscar (eventually losing the award to The Hurt Locker). The film was also adored by fans, with many seeing it multiple times and propelling the film to its eventual $2.7 billion worldwide gross. However, once the hype died down, criticisms began to emerge. Most notably, many began to point out how similar the story was to films like Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas and Fern Gully, among others. However, the biggest issue with the future of the Avatar franchise is the lack of staying power that the film had with audiences and fans. Eight years after its release, with 3D on thw wane, the rabid fans of the film have moved on to the other franchises, like the never-ending Marvel movies, or the continuation of the Star Wars saga. You won’t see many Avatar costumes at conventions, nor kids playing with Avatar toys. Arguably the film is remembered more for the fact that it made so much money, than for anything in the film itself. It’s clear that the sequels have some work to do if they are going to compete amongst the clutter of blockbuster franchises that dominate our cinemas today.
However, we shouldn’t forget that this is James Cameron we are talking about. Underestimate him at our peril.
Avatar 2 will (probably) be released on December 18, 2020.
