James Cameron remains hopeful Avatar 2 will be released in December 2021

James Cameron is hopeful Avatar 2 will be ready for release in December 2021 despite the coronavirus pandemic delaying production.

The Terminator director has been working on follow-ups to the 2009 sci-fi movie for the past few years and completed the motion capture portion of production on Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 last year. He was about to fly to New Zealand to shoot the live-action scenes when the coronavirus pandemic hit and production was shut down.

However, despite the setback, Cameron is optimistic he can still make the film's scheduled cinema release of 17 December 2021.

"It's putting a major crimp in our stride here," he told Empire magazine. "I want to get back to work on Avatar, which right now we're not allowed to do under state emergency laws or rules. So, it's all on hold right now. We were about to shoot down in New Zealand, so that got pushed. We're trying to get back to it as quick as we can.

"On the bright side, New Zealand seems to have been very effective in controlling the virus and their goal is not mitigation, but eradication, which they believe that they can do with aggressive contact tracing and testing. There’s a very good chance that our shoot might be delayed a couple of months, but we can still (release it on schedule). So that’s good news."

Cameron added that digital effects teams are continuing to work on the feature from home, while he has been able to do some editing.

Fortunately for the filmmaker, officials at the New Zealand Film Commission recently announced that productions in the country would be allowed to start filming again this month given the reduced spread of Covid-19.

Original Avatar stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and Sigourney Weaver are all set to return for the sequel, while new additions include Kate Winslet and Vin Diesel.