James Cameronis set tomakeAvatarhis career magnum opus, and even if the franchise comes to an end withAvatar 5the director will have given around three decades to telling the story the Na’vi and Pandora. With Cameron having already hinted that there could be at least two more movies beyond that in contention, it is possible that he will spend the rest of his career makingAvatarmovies. While responding to a question byRRRdirector S. S. Rajamouli viaEmpire magazine, Cameron addressed how he would feel about the other stories he could have told. He said:
“Two thoughts in answer to your question: the first is that the world of Avatar is so sprawling that I can tell most of the stories I want to tell within it and try many of the stylistic techniques that I hope to explore, and secondly, yes… our time as artists is finite. I will always mourn some of the stories that I don’t get to make. I feel a great satisfaction when other directors want to explore some of my ideas, like Kathryn Bigelow did with Strange Days, and Robert Rodriguez did when I passed him the baton on Alita: Battle Angel. I look forward to more collaborations in the future with directors I admire.”
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Could James Cameron Hand The Avatar Franchise Over To Another Director?
While James Cameron has been the driving force behind theAvatarfranchise, and withAvatar: The Way of Watercurrently tearing up the box office, it would not be a surprise if he wanted to remain at the helm of the franchise going forward. However, the director has previously suggested that he could consider handing the directorial duties of some futureAvatarmovies to other directors if there are other films he really wants to direct himself. He previously said:
“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.”
Currently,Avatar: The Way of Wateris the second highest grossing movie of the yearat the worldwide box office, having currently taken over $1.1 billion within its first fortnight on release. With its sights set on taking the top spot away fromTop Gun: Maverick, it is not surprising that Cameron already has his focus onAvatar 3. The film has already shot the majority of its preliminary photography, and with a release date set for December 2024, the work now begins on the huge amount of visual effects to be added to the final movie.
