Star Wars: Episode VIII Won’t be Facing Avatar 2 at the Box Office

When The Walt Disney Studios announced on Wednesday that Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Episode VIII will now open in theaters seven months later than previously planned, on December 15, 2017, many were quick to point out that it could be facing James Cameron’s Avatar 2 at theaters that same month. After all, it was just last month when Cameron mentioned that “Christmas of ’17 is the target.”

According to TheWrap, that no longer is the case. While the studio would not comment to them, the site says that sources confirmed the 20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment sequel won’t be ready by Christmas 2017. Also, The Walt Disney Studios certainly wouldn’t be as confident as they were with the Episode VIII move if they didn’t know something we didn’t. In fact, they are also working together with Cameron on the Avatar theme park attraction coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

A release date for Avatar 2 reportedly has not been set, which puts into question the previously-mentioned December 2018 and 2019 releases for Avatar 3 and Avatar 4 as well. Could we possibly see a global shift to summer 2018, 2019 and 2020 for all three films? Cameron intends to shoot all three films at the same time in New Zealand, so the year-apart release pattern should still be in place.

Confirmed to feature the return of cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver, Avatar 2 and the two additional sequels will be produced by Cameron and Jon Landau through their Lightstorm Entertainment. The sequels are written by Cameron along with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman, and Shane Salerno.

The original 2009 Avatar remains the top-grossing movie of all time with $2.782 billion at the worldwide box office.

When do you think they should release the Avatar sequels? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.