James Cameron has said he will hold a press conference to reveal the plots for the next two Avatar films if Fire and Ash underperforms and ends the franchise.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker made movie history with 2009’s Avatar, set on an alien world where indigenous beings, The Na’vi, rose up against humans invading their land for resources. The film remains the highest grossing movie of all time at over $2.9billion (£2.1billion), while 2022 sequel Avatar: The Way Of Water sits at third with $2.3billion (£1.7billion).
Despite this success, the filmmaker is aware that the sluggish post-COVID box office and franchise weariness may mean the third film – which is in cinemas now – doesn’t do as well, and that the fourth and fifth instalments may not go ahead.
Now, he’s revealed that, if that is the case, he will hold a press conference to reveal the plot details of Avatar 4 and Avatar 5.
“I don’t know if the saga goes beyond this point. I hope it does,” Cameron told Entertainment Weekly. “But, you know, we prove that business case every time we go out.”
“Here’s what it is,” he added. “If we don’t get to make 4 and 5, for whatever reason, I’ll hold a press conference and I’ll tell you what we were gonna do. How’s that?”
Cameron’s also shared that he would like to novelise the films and to write them himself, saying: “There’s so much culture and backstory and lateral detail in these characters that’s been worked out. I’d love to do something that’s at that level of granular detail.”
However, he continued, “There’s no business model for it anymore. People aren’t reading.”
“But anyway, it might be good to have the canonical record of what it was all supposed to be,” Cameron added.
Picking up after events in Avatar: The Way Of Water, the third film follows Jake Sully and Neytiri’s grief-stricken family, who encounter an aggressive new Na’Vi tribe, the Mangkwan clan, that threatens the future of Pandora.
In a three-star review of the new film, NME says it’s “hard to argue you don’t get your money’s worth” with Avatar: Fire And Ash, even if it does “retread extremely familiar ground”.
In other news, while promoting the film, Cameron has recently been vocal about a few incidents from the past. He dismissed Matt Damon’s assertion that the star was offered the lead in the first Avatar movie, and also expressed disappointment at a joke Amy Poehler made about him at the Golden Globes in 2013.
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