Avatar: The Way of Water has finally been released in theaters. 13 years after the first film broke box office records and went on to become the highest-grossing movie of all time, Avatar: The Way of Water has finally brought audiences back to Pandora. For many it felt like this day would never come as news of Avatar sequels has been buzzing around since after the first film was released.
Avatar sequels were announced shortly after but were also met with constant announcements and delays, with the movie always seeming forever out of reach. The delays to Avatar: The Way of Water had become a meme online, with multiple posts about how Avatar: The Way of Water would have been released on this or that particular day.
Multiple franchises had fallen Avatar’s lead of the late December release date and spun off into great success, taking advantage of the sequel’s absence. With Avatar: The Way of Water finally out, take a look back at the lengthy journey it took to get here, all the various release dates the film had, and what movies swooped in to take their place.
December 2014 and 2015
The first release date for Avatar: The Way of Water (then just called Avatar 2) was initially reported for December 2014, and announced in October 2010 just 10 months after the first film opened in theaters. It was at this point that Cameron was planning to not just make Avatar 2 but also Avatar 3 and that the films would be filmed back to back and released a year apart.
By 2013, it was clear Avatar 2 would not hit theaters in 2014 and Cameron was hoping to have the film out in theaters by December 2015, likely December 18, in order to be released six years to the date of the original film. By 2014 it was confirmed that Cameron would be developing not only Avatar 2 and 3 but also Avatar 4 and 5 and hired a writer’s room to draft the sequels. Due to this, and the fact that Disney had set Star Wars: The Force Awakens for release on December 18, 2015, Avatar: The Way of Water was given a new release date of December 16.
December 2016 and 2017
The film that would become Avatar: The Way of Water was delayed twice more, first in 2016 and then in 2017. While no official reason was given, it appeared Cameron was focused on developing the story for the sequels and also pushing the visual effects technology. Principal photography on the motion capture elements would not even begin until August 2017, showing not only how long Avatar: The Way of Water was in development but how long it actually took to film.
Both December release dates were taken by Disney for their new batch of Star Wars films, with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opening on December 16, 2016, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi on December 15, 2017. Star Wars had become a December franchise and Disney did not appear to want to let go of the release date. However, by 2017, Disney already began the process of purchasing 20th Century Fox which was finalized in 2019 giving them control over the Avatar franchise, and the studio would certainly make room for it.
December 2018
On April 2016, James Cameron officially announced the release date for Avatar: The Way of Water for December 2018, with the first sequel set for December 2020 and the following two openings in December 2022 and December 2023 respectively.
In March 2017 Cameron then confirmed that Avatar: The Way of Water would not make its 2018 release date due to the extensive visual effects process and filming schedule. Disney had opted to release their Star Wars movie for the year, Solo: A Star Wars Story, in the summer, leaving the holiday season wide open. A slew of high-profile films released during the holiday season of 2018 including Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns, Paramount Pictures’ Bumblebee, Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Warner Bros. Aquaman.
December 18, 2020
Avatar: The Way of Water was then set for release on December 18, 2020, as it would not fill in the spot in the holiday release schedule left vacant by the lack of Star Wars films as the Skywalker Saga was set to end with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on December 19, 2019, and no future films were announced yet. In 2019, the film was delayed once again by one year back to 2021. Had the film kept its 2020 release date it still would have been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
December 17, 2021
Disney and 20th Century Studios set Avatar: The Way of Water for release on December 17, 2021, hoping again to fill the void left on their release schedule by no Star Wars movie. However, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the filming of the movie, and Avatar: The Way of Water was delayed one final time to December 16, 2022, when it would finally be released 13 years after the first movie.
That December 17, 2021 release date would eventually go to Spider-Man: No Way Home, which was the first movie following the COVID-19 pandemic to gross $1 billion and helped show that audiences were willing to go back to the movies. It helped set the stage for Avatar: The Way of Water’s big grand return.
Disney currently has Avatar 3 set for release on December 20, 2024, and is almost finished. Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 are both in development and have release dates set for December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028, respectively.
