Though Avatar 3 is yet to hit theaters, James Cameron is already laying out plans for the sixth and seventh films in the franchise. During an exclusive interview at the 51st annual Saturn Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, the 69-year-old director shared insights about the upcoming Avatar sequels and his role in their development.
“We’re fully written through movie five, and I’ve got ideas for six and seven, although I’ll probably be handing the baton on at that point,” Cameron told. “I mean, mortality catches up. But I mean, we’re enjoying what we’re doing. We’re loving it. We get to work with great people.”
Cameron, recognized with four awards, including best film direction, at the ceremony, expressed his desire for Avatar to evolve into a franchise akin to the iconic realms of Star Wars and Star Trek.
“Star Trek, Star Wars, the world building franchises that have been around since I was a kid, those were my inspirations,” said Cameron. “And as I was saying out there, we’re still a young universe. We’re only two movies in, we’re halfway through our third right now, To have that kind of cultural impact over time, you got to pour all your heart and energy into it.”
Avatar’s third installment is anticipated to grace theaters in 2025, with Avatar 4 scheduled for 2029 and Avatar 5 following in 2031.
Cameron continued, “People are always asking us, ‘So why did you just keep working in the same…’ Why did Lucas keep working in the same thing? Why did Roddenberry keep working in the same thing? Because when you connect with people, why would you squander that? Why would you start over with something else that might not connect?”
“And there are more stories to tell,” added Avatar producer Jon Landau, 63. “I mean, it’s not like we’re trying to come up with stories. He’s got the stories and we took the time to lay it out across all four sequels.”
Cameron remarked that if the continued success of the movies, with the first two ranking as the No. 1 and No. 3 highest-grossing films of all time, persists, it showcases that “people are innately empathetic.”
“They innately want a connection to each other,” he added. “They innately want beauty. And so many science fiction films are dystopian.”
“Ours is actually dystopian in its message to some extent, but it’s about beauty, it’s about connection, it’s about positive values, and that seems to be working,” Cameron continued. “So what does that tell us about us? And as human beings globally? Because the films are successful in all markets everywhere. And so I think that’s empowering for us.”
Although Avatar debuted in 2009, Avatar: The Way of Water graced theaters in 2022, amassing a staggering 2.3 billion dollars at the box office.
Cameron and Landau have kept details about the upcoming sequels under wraps. In a teaser interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year, Cameron hinted, “We decided we needed to leap way ahead to places that people couldn’t have predicted [for The Way of Water] and we’re gonna do that again with movie 3 as well.”
