The new post-Fox acquisition Disney landscape began to come into focus on Tuesday as the studio staked out release dates for some of the most important franchises in its now super-sized domain, including “Star Wars” and “Avatar.”
With the current iteration of the Skywalker saga set to come to a conclusion with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” out Dec. 20, Disney announced that three new, as-yet-untitled “Star Wars” films will be slated for release on the pre-Christmas weekend every other year beginning in 2022.
While various “Star Wars” projects are reportedly in the works — including a trilogy being developed by “The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson and a separate series from “Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — Disney did not reveal any details about the upcoming projects.
Disney also announced a new release plan for one of the cinematic jewels of its Fox acquisition: director James Cameron’s “Avatar” franchise. Beginning in 2021, four “Avatar” films will be released every other pre-Christmas weekend. This marks the latest in a string of delays for the follow-ups to the 2009 sci-fi blockbuster; Cameron had initially intended to release the first of two planned sequels in 2014 before expanding the plan to encompass four films.
