MOVIE NEWS – James Cameron spent decades with the Avatar franchise, and he knows it stopped him from making other movies. He says he’ll “mourn” the movies he can’t make for telling Avatar’s story.

James Cameron’s Avatar will be the masterpiece of his career, and even if the franchise ends with Avatar 5 , the director spent roughly three decades telling the story of the Na’vi and Pandora. Since Cameron has already hinted that at least two more films are in the running, it’s possible that he’ll spend the rest of his career making the Avatar movies. While answering a question from RRR director S.S. Rajamouli via Empire magazine, Cameron elaborated on what other stories he could have told. He said: “Cameron had no choice but to:

“The first is that the world of Avatar is so vast that I can tell most of the stories I want to tell in it, and I can try many of the stylistic techniques I want to explore, and second, yes… our time as artists is finite . I’ll always mourn the stories I can’t make. It gives me great satisfaction when other directors want to explore some of my ideas, like Kathryn Bigelow did with Strange Days, and Robert Rodriguez when I passed the baton to him on Alita: Battle For Angel. I look forward to working with more directors I admire in the future.”

Although James Cameron was the driving force behind the Avatar franchise, with Avatar: The Last Airbender currently rocking the box office, it wouldn’t be surprising if he wanted to stay at the franchise’s helm going forward. However, the director has previously hinted that he might consider handing over directing duties for some future Avatar films to other directors if there are films he really wants to direct himself. He previously stated:

“The Avatar movies themselves are pretty all-consuming. I have a few other things I’m working on that are exciting. I think eventually — I don’t know if it’ll be after three or four movies — I’ll want to pass the baton to a to a director I trust to take it over, so I can do other things that I’m also interested in. Or maybe not. I don’t know.”

Avatar: The Last Airbender is currently the second-highest-grossing film of the year at the worldwide box office, currently earning over $1.1 billion in its first two weeks of release. Aiming to take the top spot from Top Gun: Maverick, it’s no surprise that Cameron is already focusing on Avatar 3. Much of the film’s pre-production has already been shot, and with a December 2024 release date set, work is now beginning on the massive amount of visual effects that will need to be added to the final film.

Source: Empire