20th Century Fox
There has never been a film like James Cameron’s Avatar. Winner of three Oscars, the highest-grossing film of all-time, a breakthrough 3D adventure, the film made more money than any other film ever (including Cameron’s own Titanic) and helped convince the moviegoing public that 3D was a viable addition to blockbuster filmmaking. And then everybody stopped caring about it.
Well, except for James Cameron, who is convinced that what the world really wants – really needs — is not just one Avatar sequel, not even two, but three. If only these things could get made, though. Fire up your sex-braids, hop on a dragon-thing, and journey back to Pandora with us. It’s where we all belong (right, James? did I do good? is my family going to be okay?).
December 2009 – Avatar is released. Neil likes it.
December 2009, later – the film opens to $73 million in domestic returns.
January 2010 – the 2009 box office closes out with Avatar on top.
January 2010, later – Avatar beats the worldwide record.
January 2010, even more later – Avatar becomes the first film to earn $2 billion.
February 2010 – after its boffo box office performance, sequels for the film seem overwhelmingly imminent.
February 2010, later – Dear John finally ends Avatar’s weeks-long box office domination. :(
March 2010 – Avatar wins three Oscars, but loses Best Picture to The Hurt Locker.
April 2010 – Cameron implies that a sequel will be focused on the oceans of Pandora, while a third film (a third!?) could expand further out into his planned galaxy.
April 2010, later – despite lackluster special features, the Avatar Blu-ray becomes the best-selling Blu-ray ever. Another win!
August 2010 – Cameron more clearly implies that he wants to make at least two sequels.
October 2010 – Cameron talks about “future-proofing” the sequels.
June 2011 – Cameron says he is filming the two sequels back-t0-back and the trilogy will complete a “character arc.”
September 2011 – Cameron says he may film in 60fps.
May 2012 – Cameron says there might be three Avatar sequels.
June 2012 – Cameron says he’s filming all three sequels at once.
September 2012 – Cameron says that Avatar 4 could be a prequel.
August 2013 – Deadline reports that the Avatar sequels will arrive in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
October 2013 – Stephen Lang is somehow lined up to return for all three sequels.
2014 – no new Avatar film.
January 2014 – Deadline reports that Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana will return for the sequels.
June 2014 – Sigourney Weaver is also believed to be returning.
November 2014 – Cameron tells Empire that the films will be “bitchin.” He also claims “you will shit yourself with your mouth wide open.”
2015 – no new Avatar film.
January 2015 – Deadline reports that the sequels are officially pushed back to 2017, 2018, and 2019.
June 2015 – Variety reports that 20th Century Fox chairman and CEO Jim Gianopolus explains that Cameron “has his own face.”
2016 – no new Avatar film.
2017 – …
This is just a really long time to prepare for shitting one’s self with one’s mouth wide open, bitchin’ promises or not.