Zoe Saldaña shared a brilliant reaction to the news that the next three Avatar films had been pushed back.
This week, Disney announced that Avatar 3’s release date had been bumped from December 2024 to December 2025. As a result, the planned fourth and fifth instalments in James Cameron’s fantasy franchise were also pushed back to December 2029 and 2031, respectively.
Reacting to the news on her Instagram Story, Saldaña – who plays Neytiri in the blockbuster series – wrote: “Great! I’m gonna be 53 when the last Avatar comes out [shocked face emoji].
“I was 27 when I shot the very first Avatar,” the now-44-year-old added.
Meanwhile, Sam Worthington, 46, who stars as Jake Sully in the franchise, will be 55 years old when the final Avatar movie is released and Cameron, 68, will be 77 years old. The director has said he may not helm films four and five.
“Each Avatar film is an exciting but epic undertaking that takes time to bring to the quality level we as filmmakers strive for and audiences have come to expect,” producer Jon Landau wrote on Twitter following the announcement.
The first Avatar film was released in 2009 and became the highest-grossing film of all time with a gross of $2.9bn (£2.45bn).
The sequel, The Way of the Water, opened in December 2022 and blasted past expectations earning $2.3bn (£1.82bn) worldwide, which makes it the third-highest-grossing film of all time.
Variety previously reported that the movie would need to hit an international gross of $1.5bn (£1.26bn) in order to make a profit.
Saldaña, who also stars as Gamora in Marvel’s popular Guardians of the Galaxy film series, recently walked back comments she made about feeling “stuck” in major franchises.
“[Those films] resonated with people so much so that we get a chance to come back again and come back another time,” she told Deadline.
“If anything, I’ve reaped all the benefits of that, I’ve gained friends. I feel like the luckiest girl in this town. I still have mentors that I call and lean into.”
