It’s been six years since James Cameron’s Avatar swooped into theaters and revitalized 3D movies on its way to becoming the highest grossing film of all time. In response to that unprecedented box office triumph, Cameron has ambitious plans to make three additional Avatar movies back-to-back-to-back, but none of the Avatar sequels have started filming yet.

“I’m in the process of doing another pass through all three scripts right now,” said Cameron during a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. “Just refining. That’s in parallel with the design process. The design process is very mature at this point. We’ve been designing for about a year and a half. All the characters, settings and creatures are all pretty much [set].”

Cameron added that he is pushing himself further on the sequels in order to vindicate the success of the first Avatar.

“You have to challenge yourself,” noted Cameron. “Obviously, expectations are going to be very high on these films, especially on Avatar 2, to make sure it wasn’t just some big fluke the first time. So we’ve got to deliver. I’ve created a nice rod for my own back, so they say.”

Avatar 2 is slated to be released in December 2017, with Avatar 3 and Avatar 4 following at one year intervals in December 2018 and December 2019, respectively. Both Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver will appear in Avatar 2 despite the deaths of their characters in the original film, while the focus of the sequels will remain on Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana).

Are you still excited about the prospect of a new Avatar trilogy? Grab your unobtainium and share your thoughts below!

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HT: Entertainment Weekly

Image Credit: Lightstorm Entertainment/20th Century Fox