Sigourney Weaver Explains Why ‘Avatar’ Sequels Are Taking So Long

It has now been close to seven years since Avatar was released and became the highest grossing film of all time with a box office haul of $2.788 billion. During this time, there’s been a variety of speculation regarding the four proposed Avatar sequels, which have repeatedly been delayed.

Now Sigourney Weaver, who portrayed Dr. Grace Augustine in Avatar, has opened up about why it has taken James Cameron so long to bring Avatar 2, 3, and 4 to fruition, admitting that the legendary filmmaker has been delayed because he’s still waiting for technology to catch up with his vision.

The Academy Award-nominated actress (Aliens) made this admission over the weekend to Coming Soon during her press duties for A Monster Calls. After being quizzed about the delays to Avatar 2, Sigourney Weaver explained the following.

“I think what he’s been doing is trying to develop the technology. We’re going to do all four simultaneously, so I think he’s trying to make sure that he has really done all the groundwork so when he really starts these four we’ll be able to hit the ground running.

“So I don’t think he’s actually… he IS experimenting. I don’t know if any of that would end up in the movie ’cause it’s not actually any of the story, but I’m sure he’s trying to figure out how to photograph an animal in this situation, things like that, so on the day he doesn’t have to waste time finding that out.”

This isn’t the first time that Sigourney Weaver has opened up about the Avatar sequels in recent weeks. During her recent discussion with Variety, she insisted that the scripts that James Cameron has written for the upcoming Avatar films are much more impressive than the screenplay for the original. In fact, Sigourney Weaver believes that James Cameron and the upcoming sequels can benefit from the establishing work he did with Avatar.

“In my opinion, the three scripts I’ve read so far are many times more amazing than the first one in terms of their scope. He did a lot of the heavy lifting in the first movie, establishing the family and the relationships and the world, and now he really gets to play.”

However, Sigourney Weaver also had some bad news regarding the Avatar sequels, as the actress insisted that the sequel is unlikely to hit cinemas on its rumored release date of December 21, 2018. That’s because production still isn’t that far along. Sigourney Weaver made this admission to The Hollywood Reporter earlier this week.

“We haven’t started it, so I don’t know how realistic that date is, but I think it’s going to be very exciting.”

James Cameron has a very good reason for waiting until everything is just right with the technology before he gets to work on the Avatar sequels. Because of the success of the 2009 original, the Terminator and Aliens filmmaker is very much aware of the anticipation that’s surrounding the impending follow-ups.

Cameron discussed this pressure with Entertainment Weekly last December, as he freely admitted that Avatar 2 will need to succeed to prove that “it wasn’t just some big fluke the first time.”

But when can we actually expect to see Avatar 2? Back in April, 2016, James Cameron told the gathered masses at CinemaCon that, if all goes according to plan, there will eventually be four Avatar sequels, the first of which is set to be released in December, 2018.

Clearly 20th Century Fox and James Cameron are enamoured with the festive release date, because Avatar 3 would then follow in December, 2020, Avatar 4 in December, 2022, and Avatar 5 would finish the franchise when it hits in December, 2023. But there’s still every chance those release dates will get pushed back even further.

[Featured Image via 20th Century Fox]