Avatar Spinoffs: James Cameron on Timeline for Movies or TV Shows (Exclusive)

Avatar: The Way of Water will be bringing moviegoers back to the world of Pandora for the first time in 13 years but fans of the vibrant world have had other means of accessing James Cameron's world since Avatar hit theaters in 2009. Whether it is at a theme park or an artistic experiential event, Avatar fans have been able to visit Pandora leading into this week's release of the long-awaited sequel. Now, it seems Avatar: The Way of Water is one of many possible routes back to Pandora, with sequels on the way and spinoffs being a possibility. 

Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water mastermind James Cameron, along with producer Jon Landau, spoke with ComicBook.com in exclusive interviews where they were asked if spinoff movies or shows on Disney+ are a possibility. After all, Disney's major franchises seem to be taking advantage of Disney+ as an outlet for streaming shows by the dozen with Marvel, Star Wars, Mighty Ducks, National Treasure, and more franchises expanding on the service. According to Landau, it's possible Avatar is among those to be next. "You know, look, we want to be trendsetters and not trend followers," Landau said. "But we see the world of Pandora as one that can expand beyond the film."

As noted, the Avatar world has seen its share of expansions outside of movie theaters, already. "We did that, you know, with our traveling show, with Circ du Soleil, Toruk – First Flight, we went back though several thousand years to the story of the first Toruk Makto," Landau said. "At Disney's Animal Kingdom, we created Pandora, the World of Avatar. We set that two generations ahead, after these sequels all finish. We want to continue to play in that. We're working with Dark Horse comics. We just released recently High Ground. Our first issue of High Ground came out. That's another story. So we want to continue to build on the world. We think people will find these characters aspirational, inspirational, in different contexts. And we want to continue to do that."

Though Landau was specifically asked about Disney+ shows and he didn't rule it out, he did not seem to hint at Avatar heading the streamer. This could be a result of the technical achievements necessary to bring Pandora and the Na'vi to life, something Cameron went into detail on.

"In terms of spinning off from Avatar, the problem is the characters are photoreal CG and it doesn't really fit a TV pipeline kind of model yet," Avatar mastermind James Cameron explained to ComicBook.com. "Now, maybe 10 years from now, if we inject enough machine, deep-learning, and A.I. into the process, it might be possible to collapse down from a one year timeline to do a shot, down closer to real time. I don't know if we'll get to real time but I think we might get close enough to do television, but it won't be for, I'd say minimum five years, maybe more like 10. But if Avatar becomes a universe, if it becomes a persistent world for people and the desire is there, yeah. I could see that happening eventually."

Are you excited for Avatar: The Way of Water? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them way on Twitter! Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters on December 16.