Avatar 3: James Cameron Teases Possible Connection to Disney Theme Park

20th Century Studios released the highly anticipated sequel to 2009’s Avatar in December, and it’s been breaking a bunch of box office records. Avatar: The Way of Water quickly became one of the top three highest grossing films of all time, joining a very prestigious club that includes Avengers: Endgame and the first Avatar. The next film in the franchise won’t hit theaters for another year, but it seems we’ve already had the opportunity to meet the new characters in Avatar 3. In a new interview with Deadline, director James Cameron reveals that some of the characters we’ll meet are already in Disney’s Avatar theme park. Cameron reveals the characters we’ll meet from the untitled third film in the franchise, “Desert people… the windtraders that trade, that travel around, that sort of thing.”

You can check out their full conversation below.

Cameron has been developing sequels to his record-breaking film for over a decade. The studio has announced four sequels to Avatar, with two already filmed, and the other two are waiting to see how the first does at the box office. The director shot both sequels back to back due to how the scenes they needed to film for both. About a year ago, Cameron confirmed to Variety why he shot the films this way.

“We mixed the schedules for 2 and 3 together, based on the types of scenes and the environments,” Cameron revealed to the trade. “I said, let’s just treat it like it’s a six-hour miniseries and we’re only going to go to Frankfurt once. We’re going to shoot all the scenes from 2 and 3 at the same time. That was more or less the motif. Actor availability was an issue as well. Anything that had to be done with a specific actor, we did all the scenes for 2 and 3 together — and a little bit of 4. Because once again, I had to shoot the kids out. They’re allowed to age six years in the middle of the story on page 25 of movie 4. So I needed everything before then, and then everything after, we’ll do later.”

The sequel is confirmed to feature several returning stars that include Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stepehn Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, CCH Pounder, Matt Gerald, and Sigourney Weaver. The cast for the sequels will include several more newcomers than returning members, though, with the likes of Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Oona Chaplin, David Thewlis, Vin Diesel, and CJ Jones all set to appear as well. Plot details for the sequels are currently unknown.

Avatar: The Way of Water is in theaters now and Avatar 3 is expected to debut two years later on December 20, 2024.

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