Believe it or not, visionary director James Cameron has expressed his desire to "pass the baton" to another director for the fourth and fifth Avatar sequels. Back in 2009, the celebrated director took the high-concept original idea of life on Pandora and turned it into a visual masterpiece called Avatar. Cameron extensively worked on the movie as he directed, wrote, produced, and co-edited it, and then it turned out to be the highest-grossing film of all time. Avatar got nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director out of which it won three, for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects.
Post the success of the movie Cameron planned an epic new four-film sequel saga set on Pandora the first of which Avatar: The Way Of Water is set to release later this year, after a long wait of over a decade. In a recent interview with Empire Magazine, Cameron admitted, “The Avatar films themselves are kind of all-consuming.”
The Way of Water will be followed by Avatar 3 which was shot back to back with the upcoming flick. Sooner than later Avatar 4 and 5 will also hit production however, Cameron doubts his directorial return, he said:
"I’ve got some other things I’m developing as well that are exciting. I think eventually over time – I don’t know if that’s after three or after four – I’ll want to pass the baton to a director that I trust to take over, so I can go do some other stuff that I’m also interested in. Or maybe not. I don’t know."
Explaining himself the director added, “Everything I need to say about family, about sustainability, about climate, about the natural world, the themes that are important to me in real life and in my cinematic life, I can say on this canvas.” Avatar is essentially a story of self-discovery that imbibes themes of imperialism and deep ecology. It stars Sam Worthington as Jake Sully, Zoe Saldana as Neytiri, Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch, Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine, and the upcoming sequel adds Kate Winslet as Ronal among others.
Speaking about Avatar 4 Cameron revealed:
"I got more excited as I went along. Movie four is a corker. It’s a motherfucker. I actually hope I get to make it. But it depends on market forces. Three is in the can so it’s coming out regardless. I really hope that we get to make four and five because it’s one big story, ultimately."
Avatar: The Way of Water will release on December 16, 2022.