'Avatar 2' Release Date Is Still Too Far Away

It's crazy to think that Avatar hit the big screen nearly seven years ago, back in 2009. Where does the time go? Director James Cameron had taken 14 years to plan and execute the first installment of his intended trilogy, so it's no surprise that we're still waiting after all this time for the next episode. While a year or two between releases is common, having upwards of a decade between them is nearly unheard of, but then, Cameron has never really played by the rules. Unfortunately, he recently revealed that Avatar 2 will be released Christmas 2017, which is still way too far away for my liking.

Writers Josh Friedman, Shane Salerno, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver have been working with Cameron on bringing his story to life, with the group combining forces to determine the full story together rather than working on different elements, ensuring a cohesiveness that many franchises lack. However, the grandiose nature of the Avatar world necessarily means that progress on bringing it to life is slow moving at best and downright snail paced at worst (particularly if you're impatient like me). After all, we haven't even made it to 2016 yet, meaning there's still two years to go before we get Avatar 2.

In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Cameron explained that even that date isn't set in stone, saying: "Christmas of ’17 is the target. At least, that’s what we’ve announced. But I don’t consider that to be as important as the fact that when we get all three films done, we drop them a year apart. I call it a meta-narrative that runs across the three movies. Each film stands alone, but it also tells one much larger story."

He continued: "We have design more or less finished, which is an enormous task. It’s been about a two-year task. (We’ve finished) all the creatures and the landscapes, and the new worlds within the world of Pandora that you see. The writing is ongoing, but almost finished. Technical development is done. Stages are done. Infrastructure. So we’re really poised to start after the first of the year."

You have to admire Cameron's incredible artistic vision. He spares no amount of creativity and technical difficulty in order to make his passionate vision a reality. Given the incredible accomplishments of the first Avatar film, it's pretty safe to say that when the sequel does hit the theaters, it will have been well worth the wait. In the meantime, it's hard to remain patient when all I want is to head back to Pandora.

Images: 20th Century Fox