Avatar 2, 3, 4 and 5 will be released over the next seven years

The future of James Cameron's Avatar franchise has been uneasy, with sequels facing major delays, but today Fox announced it would be developing at least four more titles in the series.

Cameron announced the plans for Avatar 2, Avatar 3, Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, telling a group of journalists that he'd see them on Pandora, according to Variety.

Avatar 2, the first sequel to Cameron's record-breaking film from 2009, will arrive Christmas 2018. As of right now, there aren't any other major titles that would compete with Cameron at the box office, but that could change. Star Wars: Episode VIII was originally supposed to be released next May, but the Disney decided to bump it down to December. If the same thing happens with the stand-alone young Han Solo movie, Fox could lose out to Disney at the box office.

The third installment will arrive on Christmas 2020, with the fourth being released on Christmas 2022 and the fifth a year later, around Christmas 2023. Sam Worthington, who starred in the original, has previously said he's interested in returning for the sequel, as has Zoe Saldana.

When Avatar was released in 2009, it became the top-grossing film ever, pulling in more than $2.7 billion worldwide. Cameron has previously said he was waiting for technology to catch up to his concepts for what the sequels should be before starting production, but it looks like things are definitely underway now.