*Zoe Saldana will be stuck on Pandora for the considerable future.
Fox announced late Tuesday that the actress and Sam Worthington have signed on for three more “Avatar” films.
“(Worthington’s) Jake Sully is a rare combination of passion, strength, street smarts and soul, which requires a lot from an actor,” said Cameron in a statement. “ Sam brought to the role a combination of sensitivity, vulnerability and strength.
“Zoe captured every aspect of the character I envisioned, bringing to Neytiri a mix of delicacy, fierceness and incredible physicality. I am beyond pleased they’ll be returning with us to Pandora.”
Also back for “Avatar 2, 3 and 4″ is Stephen Lang, whose character died at the end of 2009’s “Avatar.”
Cameron also recruited an all-star team of genre screenwriters to pitch in, including Josh Friedman (“War of the Worlds”), Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”), and Shane Salerno (“Savages”).
Cameron recently told The Associated Press that a team of software developers has been working on an even more impressive visual feat than the 3-D original that earned $2.8 billion worldwide.
“It’s going to be a lot of new imagery, and a lot of new environments and creatures across Pandora,” he said. “We’re blowing it out all over the place. At first I thought I was going to take it onto other worlds as well, in the same solar system, but it turned out not to be necessary. I mean, the Pandora that we have imagined will be a fantasy land that is going to occupy people for decades to come, the way I see it.”
Filming is set to begin in New Zealand, with the first sequel due to hit theaters in December 2016, the second in December 2017 and the final in December 2018.
