The highly anticipated release of the first sequel to James Cameron's 2009 "Avatar," which was originally slated for release in 2016, has been delayed another year, according to Variety.

Jim Gianopulous, 20th Century Fox chairman/CEO, spoke about the delay on Monday in New York.

"Jim Cameron has his own pace," he said, referring to the creator's long delayed release of the original film because when he conceived of the idea, the technology wasn't yet available to make it happen.

Gianopulos told the crowd he expects the follow-up sequel to hit theaters around Christmas time in 2017. That will also be followed by two more sequels releasing over the same holiday week in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Cameron is filming the movies in New Zealand, and when Gianopulos visited him, he wowed the crowd with what he saw.

"It's a room...which is covered floor to ceiling with images, characters, worlds, settings," Gianopulos said. "It's the most amazing, breathtaking thing you've ever seen. His [Cameron's] challenge is to put all of that in a movie."

The 2009 Fox release of James Cameron's "Avatar," which starred Zoe Saldana, broke box-office records on both domestic and foreign charts. The film, which when released in December 2009, was competing for the No. 1 spot at the box office on the domestic and international charts with only another James Cameron film, "Titanic," according to Box Office Mojo.

By comparison, at the time of "Avatar's" release, "Titanic" had pulled in $600 million in the U.S. and almost $2.2 billion internationally. The only films that came close to that U.S. number was "The Dark Knight" ($534 million) and "Star Wars" ($460 million). So essentially, the top spots at the box office were basically a one-man show.

"Avatar" raked in nearly $800 million more than his previous No. 1 record with "Titanic."

See the original trailer below.