Anna Daniels
Posted on Saturday, January 11th, 2020 by Fred Topel
The list of James Cameron’s Avatar sequels kept growing from two sequels to form a trilogy, and now we’re dealing with a total of five films in the franchise when all is said and done. Flight of the Conchords star Jemaine Clement was announced to be in an unknown number of the Avatar sequels as a marine biologist named Dr. Ian Garvin. So while the actor appeared at the Television Critics Association panel for the FX series What We Do In the Shadows, we had to ask him about working on the Avatar franchise.
In our interview with Clement, the actor clarified which Avatar sequels he’s actually in, including what some of his scenes involved, and the status of any more Flight of the Conchords music.
James Cameron has been filming Avatar sequels for years. The way Avatar movies are filmed, Cameron can shoot as often or as infrequently as he wants, using the volume and performance capture and stitching scenes together in post. They’re basically working on all the movies at once, and Clement confirmed he’s involved with at least two of the sequels.
“I don’t know that I’m in all of them but we’re filming the second and third ones at the moment,” Clement said.
That still doesn’t rule out Avatar 4 and Avatar 5, which have been said to only happen if the first two sequels are successful at the box office.Cameron keeps adding cast members, bringing back the likes of Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang, in addition to the main characters played by Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana.
As for what Clement’s role entails, he gets to spend some time underwater in Pandora.
One of the first details James Cameron revealed about the Avatar sequels was that they would explore the Pandoran seas. That makes sense sinceCameron has always been obsessed with the deep sea from The Abyss to Titanic and his real life deep sea dives. And Jemaine Clement gets to spend some time underwater in Pandora with Cameron. He talked about the experience of shooting those scenes:
“What’s really cool about doing that is it’s in 3D. Sometimes they play the scene back and it’s 3D and you’re like swimming through the ocean and floating in front of the monitor. I haven’t seen anything cut together at all.”
Avatar 2 is slated to arrive in theaters on December 17, 2021, and Avatar 3 will follow on December 22, 2023. If those two movies are successful at the box office, then James Cameron will continue with Avatar 4 on December 19, 2025, and Avatar 5 will finish the franchise on December 17, 2027.
Any New Flight of the Conchords Music on the Way?
Unfortunately for you Flight of the Conchords fans out there, it doesn’t sound like there will be any new music for awhile
Jemaine Clement reunited with Bret McKenzie for a Flight of the Conchords special for HBO. They played their hits from the HBO comedy and their music from before the show, as well as some new songs. For now, the band is separated again.
“[Bret’s] very busy at the moment,” Clement said. “He’s organizing an arts festival in New Zealand.”
That’s sad, because we’d always love to hear new Flight of the Conchords music, but the special was a gift for fans, and it showed that they can always reunite and make more when they have the time. It’s also good to be individually busy and both are involved with noteworthy projects.
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