"Avatar 4 "Begins Production

As fans await the release of the Avatar threequel, production for "Avatar 4" gets underway as actor Stephen Lang, who plays Colonel Quaritch, offers an encouraging behind-the-scenes update. 

Via Instagram, Lang shared a set photo to mark the beginning of principal photography for the upcoming epic sci-fi blockbuster, which will make its theatrical debut near the end of the current decade. 

He posted a visual of himself sporting a motion capture suit sporting Colonel Quaritch's name with the caption, "Deja Blu all over again," an ode to his character and the logo on the suit. 

The post was met with lots of excitement from fans as they looked forward to seeing what the movie offers. It also coincides with Avatar director James Cameron's recent update on the filming progress of Avatar 4. 

The acclaimed filmmaker shared that parts of the movie have already been shot despite initially claiming the pic wouldn't begin principal photography until after "Avatar 3" came out. 

Speaking with People, Cameron revealed the decision to begin shooting Avatar 4 came down to a planned time jump in the movie. 

"We even did part of movie four because our young characters are all going to have a big time jump in movie four," he said. "We see them and then we go away for six years and we come back. And so the part where we come back is the part we haven't shot yet. So we'll start on that after three is released." 

"Avatar 4" has been delayed five times since it was initially announced alongside "Avatar" 3 in 2010, with the latest delay coming last June amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. 

Cameron and Landau confirmed in 2022 that the first act of Avatar 4 had been shot, with Cameron's script reportedly stunning executives at 20th Century Studios. 

"Avatar 4" is now set to arrive in theaters on December 21, 2029, 20 years after the original Avatar debuted, with the original movie being the highest-grossing film ever made at $2.92 billion worldwide. 

The pic also features Sam Worthington (Jake Sully), Zoë Saldaña (Neytiri), Sigourney Weaver (Kiri), and Britain Dalton (Lo'ak), who will narrate the next two sequels. 

The cast completed filming for Avatar 3 amid the height of the coronavirus pandemic, with post-production for the threequel getting "hectic," according to Cameron. The threequel sets up the following sequel with newly-introduced tribes, including fire and wind-based ones.