Angeles: The production on James Cameron’s much-awaited Avatar sequels is expected to restart in New Zealand next week.
Producer Jon Landau took to Instagram Thursday to share that he and the rest of the Avatar cast and crew will be returning to New Zealand next week, reports said.
“Our Avatar sets are ready. — and we couldn’t be more excited to be headed back to New Zealand next week,” Landau wrote while sharing a photograph of two water vessels used in the films.
“Check out the Matador, a high speed forward command vessel (bottom) and the Picador jetboat (top) — can’t wait to share more,” he added.
The work on the Avatar sequels came to a halt in March with lockdown orders by the New Zealand government due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier in an interview with Empire for the new Celebration Of Cinema issue, Cameron shared that he is confident that his much-awaited Avatar 2 will release as planned.
Avatar 2 is currently slated for a release December 17, 2021.
“I want to get back to work on Avatar, which right now we’re not allowed to do under state emergency laws or rules. So it’s all on hold right now,” Cameron said.
The filmmaker had shared that he was scheduled to take the filming to New Zealand before the lockdown.
“We were about to shoot down in New Zealand, so that got pushed. We’re trying to get back to it as quick as we can,” he said.
It is being believed that Avatar 2 takes place 12 years after the events of the first movie. It follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as he roams the planet of Pandora with the new family he has with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana).
The first part was a huge success, becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time when it released in 2009. Its worldwide record was broken last year by Avengers: Endgame.