Cinephiles can soon return to Pandora as director James Cameron on Sunday confirmed that the filming of ‘Avatar 2’, the second installment in the planned four-film franchise, is finally complete. He confirmed the news while talking to Arnold Schwarzenegger at 2020 Austrian World Summit environmental conference.

Announced in 2010, the movie was subjected to 8 delays to its theatrical release, with the latest occurring on July 23, 2020, owing to the coronavirus outbreak. “We are a 100% complete on ‘Avatar 2’ and sort of 95% complete on Avatar 3. So we are very lucky in that we chose this as our production site years ago,” Cameron said. ‘Avatar 2’ will be released on December 17, 2022.

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The film follows Jake Sully and Neytiri, who have formed a family and are doing anything to stay together. They are, however, forced to leave their home and explore the different regions of Pandora when an old threat returns to finish what it started. It is set 13 years after the events of the original film.

The returning stars include Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, and Sigourney Weaver. Kate Winslet and ‘Game of Thrones’ star Oona Chaplin have also joined the cast. The script was written by Cameron with Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, and Shane Salerno.

‘Avatar’ hauled $2.8 billion worldwide and won three Oscars in 2010. To this day, it remains the second highest-grossing movie of all time.