'Avatar 2' release date news: Stephen Lang says production will start 2017

James Cameron's "Avatar" was one of the biggest movies to ever be released back in 2009. A sequel had been announced a while back, and news on the film had gone so quiet that any idea of an "Avatar" sequel basically disappeared from public awareness. There is good news for "Avatar" fans, however, because the sequel will be ready to start production sometime next year.

The news comes from Blastr, and they reported that actor Stephen Lang dropped the news while promoting his movie "Don't Breathe" at Wizard World Comic Con Chicago. He says, "As the New Year turns, we start to shoot for the Avatar sequels... I think that the whole process of making the films and opening the films will go to about 2023."

According to Screen Crush, this totally lines up with what James Cameron said about the "Avatar" earlier this year at CinemaCon. Cameron says that "Avatar" will be getting four sequels, the first one is set to come out in 2018, the second in 2020, the third in 2022, and the fourth in 2023.

That's a whole lot of sequels to follow a movie that came out back in 2009. With the one-year gap between the last two movies, one could guess that the last installments will be a two-parter.

Stephen Lang's return to "Avatar 2" is also a bit confusing since his character died in the last movie. Cameron had talked about how they were getting around the Colonel's death back in 2013, and he said, "[Stephen] was so memorable in the first film; we're privileged to have him back. I'm not going to say exactly how we're bringing him back, but it's a science fiction story, after all."

Rumor has it that this time around, Lang will be the protagonist, and Sigourney Weaver (whose character also died in the first movie) will be the villain. The setting will be in under the waters of Pandora, and it's said that Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana are not expected to return.

"Avatar 2" is set to come out in 2018.