James Cameron: Avatar 2 has finished filming

James Cameron says while Avatar 2 is done filming, Avatar 3 is done 95 per cent.

Filmmaker James Cameron has said that Avatar 2 has finished filming. While talking to Arnold Schwarzenegger on the latter’s YouTube channel, Cameron informed that while the principal photography for Avatar 2 is done, the third film, which was being shot back-to-back is done about 95 per cent.

He said, “Well, Covid hit us like it hit everybody. We lost about four and a half months of production. As a result of that, we’ve rolled around one more full year for a release in December of 2022. That’s been announced already. Now that doesn’t mean I have an extra year to finish the film, because the day we deliver Avatar 2 we’ll just start working on finishing Avatar 3.”

Cameron added that it was fortunate for him and his crew that they decided to film Avatar sequels in New Zealand, like the original film. New Zealand’s response to the coronavirus outbreak has been exemplary and this allowed Cameron and his team to get on with filming in a safe environment.

He added, “So where we are right now, I’m down in New Zealand shooting. We’re shooting the remainder of the live-action. We’ve got about ten per cent left to go. We’re a hundred per cent complete on Avatar 2 and we’re sort of ninety-five per cent complete on Avatar 3. So we’re very lucky in that we chose this as our production site years ago. We made the first film here in New Zealand and it turns out it’s ranked either first or second best country in the world for its Covid response. We are able to operate and live a normal life here. So we are very fortunate.”

The original Avatar was a megahit with both critics and audiences. Until Avengers: Endgame re-released in theatres, it was the highest-grossing film of all time in terms of worldwide returns. It flipped the traditional alien invasion premise of most films involving extraterrestrials. Instead of aliens invading earth, the humans invaded Pandora, a moon of the gas giant Polyphemus, populated by a race of humanoids called Na’Vi, a peace and nature-loving, blue-hued species with feline-ish eyes, to mine the valuable mineral called Unobtanium.

The film starred Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver in the lead roles. All of them will return in the sequels.

Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Oona Chaplin, David Thewlis, CJ Jones and Vin Diesel are joining the franchise’s cast with the sequels.

Avatar 2 is set to be released on December 16, 2022.