‘Avatar 2’ delayed again, will no longer compete with 'Star Wars: Episode VIII'

James Cameron's Avatar sequel has been delayed, and so it will no longer go up against Star Wars: Episode VIII.

As reported by TheWrap, Cameron's sequel will not be ready for Christmas 2017. 20th Century Fox has not yet specified a new release date, but this news comes right after Disney announced a Christmas 2017 release for their next Star Wars movie.

This also delays all three upcoming Avatar movies, as Cameron has a trilogy planned going up to Avatar 4. The third and fourth installments were scheduled to hit theaters in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Regardless of what date the studio picks for Avatar 2, the plan still appears to be to release each of these films a year apart. Cameron will shoot all three back to back in New Zealand.

It is unclear if this delay is due to the production being behind schedule or if 20th Century Fox did not want to compete with Star Wars. Either way, it's the second time Avatar 2 has been pushed back, as it was originally slated for Christmas 2016. Cameron has been pretty loose with these dates all along, though, so it sounds like he is committed to releasing the film when it's ready and not rushing it, as we previously reported.

“But I don’t consider [the release date] to be as important as the fact that when we get all three films done, we drop them a year apart,” Cameron previously said. “I call it a meta-narrative that runs across the three movies. Each film stands alone, but it also tells one much larger story.”