Avatar 2: Real reason behind film's delay revealed; new release date to be further affected by James Horner's death?

Will the production and release date of Avatar 2 get affected by the untimely demise of its music composer James Horner?

While director James Cameron or the studio behind Avatar have not made any statement with regards to any potential delay in production or to that effect, if any, Horner's death will affect Avatar 2, the filmmaker did state that the movie has lost an integral member.

In a joint statement Cameron and his Avatar producing partner Jon Landau said, "The Avatar community has lost one of our great creative lights." (via Franchise Herald)

"James' music was the air under the banshees' wings, the ancient song of the forest, and the heartbeat of Eywa," they said. "The beauty and power of Avatar lay not just in the superb performances and the visual splendour, but in the music that made us cry and exult along with our characters."

While Horner and Cameron had worked together in Aliens, their professional collaboration was awarded and recognised when they both won Oscars for Titanic in 1998. Horner died in a California plane crash last Monday (22 June 2015).

Incidentally, Horner had previously explained the reason behind Cameron's decision in delaying Avatar 2 for another year (the film is now expected to release in November 2017).

Apparently, the 60-year-old Canadian filmmaker was having some problems in making the trilogy since the script is originally made for "four sequels".

"Right now Jim [James Cameron] has four sequels, script wise," Horner said in his interview. "And he's trying to make it into three. And that is where, I think, his effort is going right now. To keep it to three sequels. Because he's got so much going on how do you keep it from expanding into a fifth movie, total. And he'll get that sorted out," he had said.