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James Cameron confirms Avatar 2 and 3 live action almost complete

Live-action shooting in New Zealand is done on Avatar 2 and "95 percent" done on Avatar 3.

Jennifer Bisset Former Senior Editor / Culture
Jennifer Bisset was a senior editor for CNET. She covered film and TV news and reviews. The movie that inspired her to want a career in film is Lost in Translation. She won Best New Journalist in 2019 at the Australian IT Journalism Awards.
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  • Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Jennifer Bisset
2 min read
Concept art for the Avatar sequels

Concept art for the Avatar sequels.

20th Century Studios

We've seen set pictures and concept art of the Avatar sequels currently shooting in New Zealand, and now director James Cameron has provided an update on the state of the production. It turns out, the live-action shooting for Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 is almost done.

"So, where we are right now [is] I'm down in New Zealand shooting. We're shooting the remainder of the live-action. We've got about 10 percent left to go. We're 100 percent complete on Avatar 2 and we're sort of 95 percent complete on Avatar 3," Cameron said in a video call with Terminator friend Arnold Schwarzenegger over the weekend ahead of the 2020 Austrian World Summit environmental conference (via The Independent).

Cameron also described the effect the coronavirus pandemic had on delaying shooting.

"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."

Avatar 2 will see the return of Sam Worthington as Jake Sully, plus Zoe Saldana, Giovanni Ribisi and Sigourney Weaver -- in a role different from that of Dr. Grace Augustine, which, as we've already seen, involves underwater stunt work.

Avatar 2 is scheduled for release on Dec. 16, 2022, a full year later than its original release date. Avatar 3 is in the same boat: Its release date jumped from December 2023 to Dec. 20, 2024.

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