James Cameron needn’t worry about rushing his Avatar sequels, at least as far as John Oliver is concerned.
On HBO Max’s Last Week Tonight, the late-night host discussed climate change and how at the 2009 Climate Change Global Conference in Copenhagen, rich nations promised to channel $100 billion a year to less wealthy nations by 2020 to help them adapt to climate change. Spoiler alert: they didn’t hit the mark.
Oliver quipped, “There are things it’s ok to take a decade on and not deliver on, the Avatar sequels, for instance. Take your time on those, James Cameron. No one gives a s***.”
“I will give anyone in this audience one thousand dollars right now if they remember either of these characters’ names,” he said referring to Zoe Saldana’s Neytiri and Sam Worthington’s Jake Skully. “Exactly.”
Avatar was released in 2009 with four sequels expected to follow but was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There is no one more disappointed about this delay than me,” he said last summer. “But I am buoyed by the incredible performances of our cast and the extraordinary work that Weta Digital is doing brining the world of Pandora and the characters of the film to life.”
The latest release dates are as follows.
Avatar 2 (Dec. 17, 2021 is now Dec. 16, 2022), Avatar 3 (previously Dec. 22, 2023 is now Dec. 20, 2024), Avatar 4 (formerly Dec. 19, 2025 goes to Dec. 18, 2026), and Avatar 5 (previously Dec. 27, 2027 goes to Dec. 22, 2028).