It may have taken Avatar: The Way of Water more than a decade to finally arrive in theatres in 2022, but the long parade of Avatar delays isn’t over yet.
On Tuesday, the Walt Disney Co. announced it has pushed the release of Avatar 3 back a year, bumping it from December 2024 to December 2025. The timeline is stretched even further for the next planned instalments. Avatar 4 is now slated to hit theatres in December 2029; Avatar 5 is set to arrive in December 2031.
If those dates hold, the Avatar film series will have stretched across the first four decades of the century. Director James Cameron, who launched Avatar in 2009, has said he may not direct films four and five. By December 2031, the 68-year-old Cameron would be 77.
Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water have collectively made more than $5.2bn (£4.1bn, A$7.6bn) at the box office.
“Each Avatar film is an exciting but epic undertaking that takes time to bring to the quality level we as film-makers strive for and audiences have come to expect,” Avatar producer Jon Landau wrote on Twitter.
Disney on Tuesday shuffled plans for more of its biggest franchises: two Star Wars film are planned for 2026, one having been pushed from December 2025 to May 2026 and the second added for December 2026. The studio hasn’t announced details on either untitled production.
The Marvel calendar was also remade on Tuesday, as the studio continues to reshape its coming plans in its superhero kingdom. Most notably, Avengers: Kang Dynasty is being postponed from May 2025 to May 2026. That film, a pivotal release for Marvel, prominently features actor Jonathan Majors, who was charged with domestic violence in March. The actor, who has yet to enter a plea to the misdemeanor assault charges, is next due to face court for a follow-up hearing on 13 June. Majors’ attorney has denied the charges and says he’s innocent.
Other shifts in Marvel releases include most films being delayed a few months. Captain America: Brave New World will open in July 2024 instead of May 2024, after which comes Thunderbolts in December 2024, Blade in February 2025 and Fantastic Four in May 2025.
From Disney’s 20th Century, another Alien film is now on the calendar, dated for August next year. But one movie is coming sooner: Deadpool 3 will now debut May 2024, instead of November next year.