A new pair of images of actor Jack Champion has driven home just how long Avatar 2 has been in production. James Cameron's follow-up to his 2009 box office megahit Avatar is scheduled to be released in December 2022. The 2009 film is set to have four sequels, bringing the franchise total to five. All the sequels will be filmed back-to-back, with the final film expected to debut in December 2028.
The upcoming Avatar movies have had a notoriously rocky road to production. Cameron has stated that the scripts alone took about four years to write. In addition, part of what made Avatar so difficult to film was its use of motion-capture technology. So, naturally, Cameron had to up the ante for the sequels: apparently, a good portion of the films will take place underwater, which means that he had to figure out how to make that motion-capture tech waterproof. Between the writing and technology development, filming didn't start until eight years after the first movie was released.
Jack Champion, who will play Javier 'Spider' Socorro in Avatar 2 and its sequels, was 12 years old when filming began in 2017. Three years later, he's finally completed his last live-action shot for Avatar 2. To celebrate, the official Avatar Twitter account posted a picture of 12-year-old Champion contrasted with current-day Champion, and it's a clear indication of just how long the film has been in production.
Even though Champion has wrapped his final live-action scene, that doesn't mean Avatar 2 is done filming. The production had to take a short break due to the coronavirus pandemic, but they resumed work in New Zealand in June. This means despite the long period of time that has already passed, Cameron still hasn't moved on to post-production. So far, there's no word on how much longer filming will take. Earlier this year, the release date for Avatar 2 was pushed back an entire year from December 2021.
One of the challenges of long filming schedules is dealing with how quickly child actors grow up, and Avatar 2 has a large cast of children with which to contend. Most movies take several months to film, not several years. Seeing the actors change so much while working on one movie is slightly surreal; it emphasizes just how different Cameron's films are, from their technology to their schedules. Filming four movies that require such extensive production timelines back-to-back is an ambitious task, but if Cameron's filmography has demonstrated anything, it's that he's up to the challenge.
Source: Avatar via Twitter
