Audience members yearning to return to the exotically extraterrestrial locale of Pandora will have to wait for at least three more years, as James Cameron has confirmed that the first of his back-to-back Avatar sequels won’t arrive until Christmas of 2014.

While Cameron’s original 3D sci-fi smash frequently changed release dates before it finally settled on December 2009, both Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 are less likely budge from their still tentative winter holiday dates in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Cameron said he was "looking forward to returning to Pandora" The first sequel to blockbuster hit Avatar will be released in December 2014 with a second to follow 12 months later, 20th Century Fox has announced. Entertainment Weekly spoke to Cameron, who told them:

“I am in the process of writing the next two ‘Avatar’ films now. We are planning to shoot them together and [edit them in post-production] together, and we will probably release them not quite back to back, but about a year apart.” The filmmaker also teased about the return of some familiar faces, saying that “Basically, if you survived the first film, you get to be in the second film, at least in some form.”

"We will not back off the throttle of Avatar's visual and emotional horse-power," the director continued.

The Oscar-winning director also said the Avatar sequels would "continue to explore its themes and characters, which touched the hearts of audiences in all cultures around the world".

"looking forward to returning to Pandora, a world where our imaginations can run wild."

Avatar has earned $2.77 billion (£1.76 billion) at the global box office. It holds for the record for the highest-grossing film ever, having exceeded Titanic's international takings of $1.84bn (£1.16bn) in January.

Like the first film, the Avatar sequels will be set on the distant moon of Pandora and will be shot in 3D. James Cameron will start writing the scripts early next year and said the films will be "self-contained stories that also fulfil a greater story arc".

Avatar used innovative special effects to follow the fortunes of a paraplegic ex-marine who takes the form of a 10-foot tall, blue-skinned alien. It is not known whether any of its cast members - among them Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana - will reprise their roles in the sequels.

20th Century Fox executives Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman have expressed their pleasure with the plans to continue the studio's lucrative franchise."We had no higher priority, and can feel no greater joy, than enabling Jim to continue and expand his vision of the world of Avatar," they said in a joint statement.

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