The future of the Avatar franchise might not include its creator in the director’s chair.
It has been 13 years since James Cameron’s colony of blue creatures made their debut on the big screen. The movie raked in more than $2.8 billion at the global box office, becoming the highest-grossing film at the time. Avatar also proved to be a critical success, earning nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.
In light of the movie’s success, Cameron agreed to make four sequels which would expand the world of Pandora and the Na’vi species.
The first two sequels were filmed back-to-back between September 2017 and November 2018, with the intricate special effects work required resulting in a December 2021 release. COVID-19 had other ideas, however, pushing the film back another year. The first sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, is expected in theatres this coming December, while Avatar 3 will follow in December 2024.
Having come up with the idea of Avatar three years before releasing his blockbuster Titanic in 1997, Cameron has now hinted that he may decide to hand over the directing reigns for the franchise’s final two films.
“The Avatar films themselves are kind of all-consuming,” he told Empire. “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.”
In the meantime, the Cameron-directed Avatar: The Way of Water is out on December 16, 2022.
