We've known for years that James Cameron has long harboured plans to make five Avatar films, with the first sequel to 2009's Avatar due to hit cinemas in under three weeks. While promoting The Way of Water, Cameron has gone into detail about the financial success that will surely be required in order to push his dreams of finishing the series into reality - and he may even have plans to tell the story beyond then, although he admits it may not be him that finishes telling that story.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron admitted that the box office success of his finished sequels would ultimately decide the fate of Jake Sully, Neytiri and the world of Pandora for audiences to experience. "We’ll probably finish movie three regardless because it’s all shot," he said. "We’d have to really crater for it not to seem like it was worth the additional investment. We’d have to leave a smoking hole in the ground. Now, hopefully, we get to tell the whole thing because five’s better than four, four’s better than three, and three’s better than two."
And should he get to bring those films to a happy and grateful worldwide audience, he thinks he has further that he can take the story - although, he confesses he may not be physically able to do so by that point. In a moment of brevity, he said: "I'd be 89 by then. Obviously, I’m not going to be able to make Avatar movies indefinitely, the amount of energy required. I would have to train somebody how to do this because, I don’t care how smart you are as a director, you don’t know how to do this."
With filming on Avatar 3 currently complete, and some of Avatar 4 already shot as well, it does seem unlikely that Cameron won't get to finish his series. Disney invested big in the Cameron project, and they even have their own Pandora-themed land in their Animal Kingdom theme park at Disney World in Orlando. Although, Cameron does admit, the film will need to be "in the top five films of all time to be a success" and that it's the "worst business case in movie history". However, records are there to be broken.
The Way of Water sees Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Matt Gerald, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Dileep Rao, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Giovanni Ribisi return to Pandora, alongside new additions Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Oona Chaplin, and Vin Diesel.
Avatar: The Way of Water splashes into theaters on December 16. You can check out the trailer for it below.