James Cameron has been shooting for the second and third sequel of his 2009 hit Avatar for the past few years and with Avatar: The Way of Water up for release in December, the director has now revealed that he might not direct the fourth and fifth sequel of the franchise.
In a recent chat with Empire, Cameron revealed that the Avatar films are “time-consuming” and he is developing other projects so he might shift his focus on that. “The Avatar films themselves are kind of all-consuming. 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,” he said.
Cameron also shared that the five-film series is a saga and insisted that the fourth film of the series is a giant project. “I actually hope I get to make it. But it depends on market forces,” he said. The success of the second and third sequel will determine the fate of the Avatar films. The director also spoke about the box office expectations from Avatar: The Way of Water in comparison to the original film and said, “If we did 20 percent or 30 percent less because the market simply doesn’t exist anymore, that would be bad.”
The director also addressed sceptics who believe that the audience might have forgotten the story of the original film as 13 years have passed. Talking about re-releasing the film in September, Cameron said that revisiting the story will refresh everyone’s memory. “The trolls will have it that nobody gives a s*** and they can’t remember the characters’ names or one damn thing that happened in the movie … Then they see the movie again and go, ‘Oh okay, excuse me, let me just shut the f*** up right now.’ So I’m not worried about that,” he said.
Avatar: The Way of Water releases in theatres on December 16.
