Coronavirus: Avatar sequels halt production in New Zealand as film industry battles pandemic

First sequel was scheduled to be released in December 2021

The long-awaited sequels to Avatar have been forced to halt filming indefinitely in New Zealand as the country attempts to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Producer Jon Landau told the New Zealand Herald that filming due to take place at Stone Street Studios in April would be postponed.

He said the executive team would remain in Los Angeles, while VFX work at the Wellington-based company Weta Digital would continue.

A total of four sequels were being worked on simultaneously, and due to be completed by the end of 2020.

Avatar 2 has a current release date of 17 December 2021, while the respective sequels were scheduled to be released in December 2023, December 2025 and December 2027.

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Landau told the Herald: “We've delayed it. We had plans to come down Friday night with a group of people and start back up and we made the decision to hold off and continue working here [Los Angeles], and come down there a little bit later than we'd planned.”

“We're in the midst of a global crisis and this is not about the film industry. I think everybody needs to do now whatever we can do, as we say here, to flatten the [coronavirus] curve.”

He added it was now the production’s priority to get “as many minutes” of VFX work to Weta Digital to complete.

“We try and monitor all this and look at things and think about what is in the best interest of our crew. I call it our Avatar family. That is really paramount to us above anything,” he said.

A number of other major film and TV projects have been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, including Amazon’s $1bn TV adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, and Netflix’s second season of The Witcher.