Avatar 2 Shoot Suspended amid Coronavirus outbreak; Release Date postponed!

James Cameron’s Avatar made a lot of noise after it first released in 2009. Now, the shoot for long-awaited Avatar sequel has been suspended in New Zealand due to coronavirus.

While the fans have been looking forward for its sequel, it seems they might have to be patient for a little longer as the coronavirus outbreak has put several projects on halt. 

A report in the New Zealand Herald quoted Producer Jon Landau as he said, “We’ve delayed it. We had plans to come down Friday night with a group of people and start back up and we made the decision to hold off and continue working here [Los Angeles], and come down there a little bit later than we’d planned.”

“If I told you we are going to know something in two weeks I’d be lying. I might not be wrong – even a broken clock is right twice a day. But I would be lying because I don’t know…We’re in the midst of a global crisis and this is not about the film industry. I think everybody needs to do now whatever we can do, as we say here, to flatten the [coronavirus] curve,” added the producer. 

Landau further informed that we will continue to work on the visual effects.

Cameron and Landau’s production company Lightstorm Entertainment were already working on four mega-budget Avatar sequels. The production also planned on completing both Avatar 2 and 3 originally due to finish filming this spring.

Earlier this year, release dates were announced for each film: Avatar 2 on December 17, 2021; Avatar 3 on December 2023, Avatar 4 on December 2025, and Avatar 5 on December 2027. 

Avatar was a major hit and it was known to be one of the highest-grossing films at the international box office which earned $2.78 billion after being released.