James Cameron has revealed that the Avatar sequels are all more like episodic TV than movie sequels. The Avatar franchise started in 2009 and sees Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) defect from the human colonizers to the alien Na'vi as he attempts to protect them from the invading humans. After becoming Na'vi himself by taking advantage of his non-human avatar, Sully has gone on to start a family of his own among the Na'vi in Avatar: The Way of Water. Avatar now centers around more than just Sully, as his children have become essential characters of their own.
While development of Avatar: The Way of Water took so long that it has been over a decade since Avatar released, that issue will not be the case for Avatar 3, Avatar 4, and Avatar 5. The new iterations of the franchise will be released every two years until 2028, meaning that the franchise will be much more regular in the coming years. In an interview with The Wrap, Cameron made it clear that the creators of Avatar view the movies as episodes in a TV show, rather than new movies entirely. Check out his quote below:
“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. So ideally two years from now, [Avatar 3] comes out, ideally maybe three years after that [Avatar 4] comes out, and then ideally maybe a couple years after that [Avatar 5] comes out. So we won’t be away from the marketplace, so we’ll have that sense of a persistent world, an ongoing story that I think people want. If they’re gonna invest in these characters, if they’re gonna invest in this world, we want to give it to them at a regular cadence. That was the game plan. And that’s why one of the reasons we were gone so long. It’s one big story. It’s really one big story, but it’s like episodic television. Each one has its own proximal resolution. The character problems continue across the cut.”
What Will Avatar 3, 4, and 5 Look Like?
Because much of Avatar 3 was filmed alongside Avatar: The Way of Water, the future of the franchise is much clearer than it was after the release of the original Avatar. Cameron and other producers have already explained that the other sequels are completely planned and ready for production. The visual effects of Avatar have only gotten better, and future movies promise continued innovations — though they will not experience the same visual quality jump as there was in the 13 years between Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water.
With Sully's children becoming more prominent, future films are likely to will center on them, especially Spider and Kiri. With Kiri's connection to Eywa and the world of Pandora and Spider's connection with Earth, there is a clear path forward for the franchise, and it's in part why the Avatar sequels will bring the Na'vi to Earth. After the death of Neteyam, the Na'vi are going to need to improve their defenses for Quaritch's return, especially after Spider rejected him.
How Long Will James Cameron Work On Avatar?
Cameron plans to work on Avatar for the rest of his career. With the next few years dedicated to the episodes of his Avatar franchise, he is going to need to dedicate a considerable amount of time to developing the Na'vi, Quaritch, and even putting together a futuristic version of an Earth that has already begun mining foreign planets for resources. Cameron has indicated that, if Avatar 3, 4, and 5 are successful, the producers are also willing to develop an Avatar 6 and 7. As previously reported, Cameron wants to retire after 5-6 more movies, so the Avatar movies will be taking up the majority of his time going forward.
Source: The Wrap
