Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington are on board for three 'Avatar' sequels
The movie release schedule for 2015 is already staggering under the weight of a number of huge sequels, from to , so it鈥檚 something of a relief that the master of box office profit, James Cameron, is saving the follow-up to his sci-fi magnum opus until 2016.
Because over four years have passed since the release of Avatar, it鈥檚 probably necessary to reaffirm a few details about the sequels, even the ones that seem obvious. Twentieth Century Fox has done just that with the announcement that Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington will reprise their roles as Neytiri and Jake Sully in the three upcoming Avatar sequels.
Both Worthington and Saldana, who weren鈥檛 too well-known prior to their casting in听础惫补迟补谤, have enjoyed healthy careers since its release. Saldana has seen a little more of the spotlight and is currently involved in two additional franchises, starring as Uhura in J.J. Abrams鈥� rebooted universe and as Gamora in James Gunn鈥檚 upcoming Marvel movie . Meanwhile, Worthington has played the lead in both and . Since Avatar remains the highest-grossing film of all time, however, it鈥檚 doubtful that either actor would be hesitant to get back into the franchise.
Despite the long wait for , these three sequels are currently set to . Avatar 2 will be released in 2016, Avatar 3 in 2017 and Avatar 4 in 2018, and the three movies will be shot back-to-back over the course of about a year, with filming set to begin on Avatar 2 in .
Even if you鈥檙e not a fan of Avatar, there鈥檚 no denying that Cameron pushed visual effects forward massively during the making of it. His technique of using a boom-mounted camera to capture the actors鈥� facial expressions for animators to use later has since been widely popularized in movies like , and also in the video game industry with recent releases like and .
With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how Cameron handles Avatar 2, which is said to be set largely in the oceans of Pandora and will almost certainly push the envelope when it comes to creating visual effects for underwater worlds.
H. Shaw-Williams blogs at .
