James Cameron's four Avatar sequels went into production today. The sequels will be filmed concurrently with a budget exceeding $1 billion. The production start represents a longtime goal for Cameron, the films' director, who has long insisted that more Avatar movies are on the way, but only once the scripts for the four films have been penned.
Avatar imagined a distant future in which Earth's natural resources have been depleted. To combat the energy crisis, a mining company sets off for a planet called Pandora to mine a rare mineral dubbed unobtanium. Pandora is inhabited by tall, blue creatures called Na'vi. Human miners pilot Na'vi-human hybrids to explore the world, and one of those pilots, Jake Sully, comes to find he likes the Na'vi way of life more than the human. Jake leads a rebellion against the miners, driving back their advances.
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Reports on the Avatar sequels have included numerous key plot details, like the identity of the sequels' main antagonist, as well as the films' planned time jump and how it affects the characters involved.
Debuting in theaters on December 18, 2020, the first of the Avatar sequels is only the beginning. The franchise has films planned for as far out as 2025.
(via Deadline)