'Avatar 2' filming complete, James Cameron shares update

Director James Cameron chatted with his "Terminator" star Arnold Schwarzenegger over the weekend ahead of the 2020 Austrian World Summit environmental conference to talk about "Avatar."

Filming for the sci-fi movie faced major hurdles in the past months because of the pandemic. Production had to take months of hiatus to ensure everyone's safety. He said that they "lost about four and a half months of production."

As a result, the release of "Avatar 2" had to be postponed to Dec. 16, 2022, and this has been announced already in July. It was initially set for release in December 2021. This means a full year delay. But this does not mean that cast and crew will do nothing and just wait for that day to come.

"Now that doesn't mean I have an extra year to finish the film, because the day we deliver 'Avatar 2' we'll just start working on finishing Avatar 3," Cameron told Schwarzenegger as quoted by The Independent.

The filmmaker updated fans on the status of "Avatar 2" and "Avatar 3." Despite the delay, he shared some good news during the video call. The "Titanic" director revealed that filming for the second film already wrapped up.

"So, where we are right now [is] I'm down in New Zealand shooting. We're shooting the remainder of the live-action," he revealed adding, "We've got about 10 percent left to go. We're 100 percent complete on 'Avatar 2' and we're sort of 95 percent complete on 'Avatar 3'."

The pandemic pushed back a lot of movie releases. The "Avatar 2" delay means its sequel also has a new premiere date. It was originally set for Dec. 2023 but moved to Dec. 20, 2024.

Now with filming complete for "Avatar 2" there will be post-production to do. After that, fans can anticipate the trailer. Viewers can expect to see familiar faces return including that of Zoe Saldana ("Guardians of the Galaxy") as Neytiri, Sam Worthington ("Clash of the Titans) as Jake Sully, and Sigourney Weaver ("Aliens") as Grace. There will be new faces too as the sequel will tell a new story, that of Jake and Neytiri's children as they join the fight against their enemies who are trying to destroy their faraway planet of Pandora.