‘Avatar’, ‘Star War’ sequels delayed by a year in Disney release shuffle

Audiences will have to wait a year more for a trip to Pandora or a galaxy far, far away as Disney has pushed all the sequels to James Cameron’s “Avatar” movies and “Star Wars” franchise by a year.

Cameron reached out fans with a statement, detailing the move amid the changing COVID-19 situation across the world.

"There is no one more disappointed about this delay than me,” Cameron wrote on Instagram.

“What most of you likely don't know is that the pandemic is still preventing us from being allowed to recommence most of our virtual production work on stage in Los Angeles. That work is just as critical to the films as the live-action work," he added.

“Avatar 2” has been moved from December 17, 2021, to December 16, 2022; “Avatar 3” from December 22, 2023, to December 20, 2024; “Avatar 4” from December 19, 2025, to December 18, 2026; and “Avatar 5” from December 17, 2027, to December 22, 2028, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Theatres in most of the places remain shut in the US and the rest of the world as COVID-19 cases continue to climb everywhere.

Disney has also taken “Mulan” off the theatrical release calendar. The adventure epic, directed by Niki Caro, was previously scheduled to release on August 21, after being pushed from March to July.

“Over the last few months, it’s become clear that nothing can be set in stone when it comes to how we release films during this global health crisis, and today that means pausing our release plans for Mulan as we assess how we can most effectively bring this film to audiences around the world," a Disney spokesperson said in a statement.

Theatre owners had pinned their hope on the theatrical release of “Mulan” and Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” to bring the audiences back to cinemas but both Disney and Warner Bros have made changes to the films’ release.

Earlier this week, Warner Bros took “Tenet” off its August 12 release date and said the film will get a staggered release globally, instead of waiting for all markets to reopen.

Disney said the next untitled “Star Wars” picture, previously dated for December 16, 2022, will now release on December 22, 2023, while the film after that has been shifted from December 20, 2024 to December 19, 2025. The third untitled film in the franchise will arrive in theatres on December 17, 2027 instead of December 18, 2026.

“The Personal History of David Copperfield” has been delayed by two weeks and now plans to open on August 28, 2020, while “Death on the Nile” has been shifted for two weeks to October 23, 2020.

“The French Dispatch”, previously dated October 16, 2020, is now unset.