Avatar 2 Begins Shooting Next Week

Those long awaited Avatar sequels are finally getting underway. According to The Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit, James Cameron starts filming the first sequel to the 2009 hit on Monday. (via Twitter)

Cameron is set to film four sequels to Avatar back-to-back, with the first hitting theaters in 2020. The films are a family saga about Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and their children. Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Matt Gerald, Joel David Moore, and C.C.H. Pounder are among the returning cast, despite the deaths of some of their characters in the original. 

Cameron previously said that Lang's Colonel Quaritch will be back as the main villain for all four of the planned films, noting that they will all follow "pretty much the same characters." However, there will still be newcomers, including Fear the Walking Dead's Cliff Curtis as Tonowari, the leader of a clan of reef people, and Game of Thrones' Oona Chaplin as Varang, a prominent character described as being strong and vibrant.

Still, though, Cameron says the films will focus mostly on "taking characters you know and putting them in unfamiliar places and moving them on this greater journey." The film will also incorporate the same gorgeous visuals that people have come to expect from the Avatar franchise, as Cameron has teamed up with Weta Digital, the company behind the Lord of the Rings and Planet of the Apes movies, for visual effects.

Avatar 2 is set to premiere on December 18, 2020, while Avatar 3 will follow on December 17, 2021. The fourth film will premiere on December 20, 2024, while the fifth will hit theaters on December 19, 2025. While we wait for the films to be released, see why it has taken us so long to get a follow-up to the highest grossing film of all time.