Back when Titanic was the biggest film of all time, 20th Century Fox was slightly miffed with James Cameron as there was no opportunity to make a sequel to their massive hit. Naturally, all was forgiven when Avatar surpassed Titanic and Cameron was only too happy to makes sequels, lots of them.

The journey back to Pandora has taken some unexpected turns over the course of developing the next chapter (or chapters) in the Avatar franchise. The original plan was to film two sequels back-to-back, that evolved into three sequels, and early last year Cameron confirmed that there would now be a total of four sequels.

In a Facebook post from the official Avatar page, the release dates for Avatar 2,3,4, and 5 have now been revealed.

"Great to be working with the best team in the business! Avatar takes flight as we begin concurrent production on four sequels. The journey continues December 18, 2020, December 17, 2021, December 20, 2024, and December 19, 2025!"

Avatar 2 was originally due in cinemas for 2014, ever since then the release date has moved numerous times, but for a while, it looked like Cameron's promise for a Christmas 2018 launch seemed like it was going to happen. However, Cameron scuppered those plans last month when he announced that the 2018 release date wasn't going to happen. As Cameron has had to invent and develop new technologies to make his ambitious plans come to life, I think we can forgive him.

By the time Avatar 2 is upon us, it would have been eleven years since the first movie. Ordinarily, a gap of that kind could spell box office disaster for a franchise. But this is the sequel to the biggest movie of all time, and Cameron is making four of them at the same time.