In a move that comes as a surprise to absolutely nobody, Avatar 2 won’t be released next year as originally planned.

James Cameron confirmed the news, with the first of his four Avatar sequels pushed back from the 2018 release date that was initially penciled in for the film.

Speaking to The Star, Cameron explained, “Well, 2018 is not happening. We haven’t announced a firm release date. What people have to understand is that this is a cadence of releases. So we’re not making Avatar 2. We’re making Avatar 2, 3, 4 and 5. It’s an epic undertaking. It’s not unlike building the Three Gorges dam. So I know where I’m going to be for the next eight years of my life. It’s not an unreasonable time frame if you think about it. It took us four-and-a-half years to make one movie and now we’re making four. We’re full tilt boogie right now. This is my day job and pretty soon we’ll be 24-7. We’re pretty well designed on all our creatures and sets. It’s pretty exciting stuff. I wish I could share with the world. But we have to preserve a certain amount of showmanship and we’re going to draw that curtain when the time is right.”

Well Jim, that’s what happens when you make the frankly ludicrous decision to develop four sequel all at once…

Previously, the plan was for Avatar 2 to arrive in December 2018, Avatar 3 in December 2020, Avatar 4 in December 2022, and Avatar 5 in December 2023.