James Cameron is the mastermind behindAvatarand its upcoming sequels, but the visionary filmmaker stated that there are other projects he wants to work on and that he may not return to direct the 4th and 5thAvatarmovies.
The first sequel to the 2009 financial juggernaut,entitledAvatar: The Way of Water,was originally announced in 2010. However, the film has been repeatedly delayed over the past 13 years, partly because of the ever-expanding nature of the project. Cameron has already planned and writtenfourAvatarsequels, not just one. However, the intrepid director raised questions about who will lead the project in the future.
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Cameron already filmedAvatar2 and3back-to-back, so these are already set in stone. The question, though, is whether Cameron comes back forAvatar 4and then5, both of which he’s already written. Cameron recently spoke to Empire magazine abouttheAvatarsequels. “The Avatar films themselves are kind of all-consuming,” he said in the interview. “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."
Clearly, the director is deeply passionate, verging on obsessed, about the franchise and has spent multiple decades of his life working on the first three films. It’s hard to imagine the notorious perfectionist giving away his precious baby to another director. Then again, he has done this once before. Cameron originallyintended to directAlita: Battle Angel(2019) himself, but after nearly 20 years of delays—mostly to do with his commitment to finishing the entireAvatarseries before he even began what he envisioned as theAlitatrilogy — Cameron stepped back to a producing role and let Robert Rodriguez take over as director.
But although he did give awayAlita: Battle Angel,theAvatarseries is especially importantto him. “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,” Cameron said in his interview. He went on to share his enthusiasm forAvatar 4, saying,“I got more excited as I went along. Movie four is a corker. It’s amotherfucker. I actually hope I get to make it. But it depends on market forces.”
It seems unlikely that Cameron will step down forAvatar 4, but there’s a stronger chance he will by the timeAvatar 5comes along. He’s 67 years old now, and at the glacial pace he’s taken to direct the first 3 movies, his health may become an issue before the series is concluded. However, if he does end up handing the series off to someone else, there’s one silver lining: it will probably be finished about 8 years sooner.
