By Staff Writer (media@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Dec 23, 2015 07:10 AM EST

“Avatar 2” is currently in development. Director James Cameron is working with four screenwriters to come up with the full story arc for a new movie trilogy focusing on the people of the fictional moon Pandora.

Screen Rant noted that Jim Gianopulos, chairman-CEO of 20th Century Fox, predicted that “Avatar 2” will premiere at Christmas 2017. Cameron confirmed to Montreal Gazette that the second movie will launch in two years. The director plans to shoot the film at a high frame rate, including the use of underwater motion capture to acquire a completely unique view of Pandora. The release date for the first sequel was originally slated for Christmas 2016, but has been pushed back.

“Christmas of ’17 is the target. At least, that’s what we’ve announced. But I don’t consider that to be as important as the fact that when we get all three films done, we drop them a year apart,” Cameron told Montreal Gazette. “I call it meta-narrative that runs across the three movies. Each film stands alone, but it also tells one much larger story.”

According to Cameron, they already have a somewhat complete design, which was a huge task he accomplished with writers Josh Friedman, Shane Salerno, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. He added that they already finished all the landscapes, new worlds within Pandora and creatures. They are still writing, but technical development, the stages and infrastructure are already complete. They are set to begin in 2016.

Based on the same ScreenRant report, Cameron did not divulge much about the story of the follow-up movies, but main characters Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) will return in “Avatar 2.” Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) will also reappear in a transformed state in all three sequels, although her character died in the first movie. Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) will return in the sequels too.

Cameron also shared to Montreal Gazette about the similarities between a Cirque du Soleil show, “Toruk – The First Flight,” and his film “Avatar.” He said that it is likely that Toruk will artistically influence his string of new movies.

“Avatar 2” is estimated to launch at Christmas 2017. “Avatar 3” is scheduled in 2018, while “Avatar 4” is planned to release in 2019. All three movies will be shot at the same time, but fans already have high expectations, considering the amount of time invest in production and filming. More updates and details on the new trilogy are expected soon.

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