Production on James Cameron’s hotly anticipated Avatar sequels will resume in New Zealand next week after a hiatus due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Like many productions across the world, shooting on the movies came to a halt in mid-March after lockdown measures were brought in to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
However, with New Zealand reopening after having limited cases of the disease to just over 1,500, Avatar filming will begin again next week, according to producer Jon Landau.
“Our #Avatar sets are ready – and we couldn’t be more excited to be headed back to New Zealand next week,” he wrote in a post on Instagram showing boats to be used in the film on Thursday. “Check out the Matador, a high speed forward command vessel (bottom) and the Picador jetboat (top) – can’t wait to share more.
The four sequels to Cameron’s 2009 science-fiction smash hit were due to be completed by the end of 2020, with all filmed simultaneously – but production was already behind before the pandemic.
At the moment, Avatar 2 has a scheduled release date of 17 December next year, with subsequent instalments to be released in December 2023, December 2025 and December 2027.
