James Cameron Teases Bad News for Future Avatar Sequels

20th Century Studios has finally released the highly-anticipated sequel to 2009’s blockbuster hit Avatar, and it is an absolute hit. Avatar: The Way of Water has already won big with critics and fans alike getting a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an A CinemaScore. It’s also making bank at the box office, as it recently crossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office, and it looks like the third film might be safe after director James Cameron’s recent comments. Cameron has been in high spirits during the press run for The Way of Water, but now it seems that he may have hinted at some possible bad news for the future of the franchise. During a recent interview with The Wrap, the director revealed that the Avatar sequels may be released a lot slower than fans expected.

“They exist. These stories exist. We know exactly what we’re doing. We know what these movies are gonna be. We just have to go through the process of getting them done,” Cameron told the magazine. “So, you know ideally two years from now, [Avatar] 3 comes out. Ideally maybe 3 years after that 4 comes out and then ideally maybe a couple years after that 5 comes out. So we won’t be away from the market place, so we’ll have that sense of a persistent world and ongoing story that I think people want. If they’re going to invest in these characters, they’re going to invest in this world, we want to give it to them in a regular cadence, ideally, and that was the game plan. That’s one of the reasons we were gone so long.”

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 set to arrive on December 16, 2022, with Avatar 3 set to debut two years later on December 20, 2024.

What do you think will happen? Let us know in the comments below or by hitting up our writer @NateBrail on Twitter!