Why did James Cameron's Avatar take so long to make? The original Avatar movie in 2009 was a game-changing cinematic release that broke new ground for filmmaking and smashed a series of records along the way. After achieving such success, one might think that a sequel would be imminent, but Avatar: The Way of Water didn't arrive until December 2022. Production on more Avatar movies is ongoing, although talk of a follow-up began even before the original had hit theaters. After a long wait, the decade is set to be dominated by Avatar movies, especially after the second movie was another massive box office success.
However, this lengthy period of development is nothing new and still pales in comparison to the amount of time it took for James Cameron's Avatar film to get made. Despite releasing in 2009, Cameron's first Avatar treatment was written in 1994, even before the release of the director's other big screen record-breaker, Titanic. This 80-page document outlined the world of Pandora and the creatures inhabiting it, and the director planned to move onto the world of blue alien eco-warriors after first tackling his sinking ship love, with a potential Avatar release at one point penciled in for 1999.
James Cameron Felt Technology Needed To Improve
In reality, it would be a further decade before James Cameron's Avatar premiered, and there are several factors behind this extended delay. The primary reason for Avatar's 15-year development is that the technology of the late 1990s simply wasn't good enough to cope with the demands of Cameron's concept. As revealed through several interviews in the period between making Titanic and Avatar, Cameron began looking into the capabilities of CG technology after wrapping up Jack and Rose's ill-fated boat trip, intending for Avatar to feature real actors who weren't actually present on-screen.
The filmmaker quickly decided that the technology of the day simply wasn't up to this task and temporarily shelved the project. During this period, James Cameron worked on documentaries such as Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep, both of which utilized digital 3-D filming techniques. This allowed the director to refine the processes that would eventually be used in James Cameron's Avatar. As well as waiting for the filmmaking world to catch up to his ideas, Cameron was also allowing the consumer end of the business to advance, specifically in of how many theaters were capable of screening 3-D movies.
The Films That Convinced Cameron Avatar Was Possible
According to a 2007 interview (via EW), projects such as Peter Jackson's King Kong and his Lord of the Rings trilogy convinced Cameron that the world was ready for James Cameron's Avatar and production began in 2005, with 20th Century Fox paying for the movie. Considering the work that had already been done, James Cameron's Avatar still took a long time to develop but, on this occasion, attention to detail was the driving factor. Rather than dive straight into filming, Cameron took the time to fully realize his Avatar world, hiring a language expert to concoct the Na'vi dialect, while also mapping out small details of their culture and Pandora's flora and fauna.
Undoubtedly, Cameron's patience was justified by the end product. Even those who took issue with Avatar's story and overt moral leanings recognized that the film was a visual and technological marvel and the advancements that once seemed so far away are now commonly used in a great many blockbuster releases.
How Long Are The Avatar Sequels Taking Exactly?
The wait between James Cameron's Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water was also a very long one for fans. While it took a long time to hit theaters, the first movie was a success thanks to the groundbreaking 3D technology Cameron mastered. Many believed the fact the second movie took 13 years to arrive meant that fans would no longer care about the world, and it would be a colossal failure. Those people saw that speculation proved wrong when the second movie made $2.304 billion (via Box Office Mojo), making it the third highest-grossing movie of all time.
However, James Cameron's Avatar sequel was supposed to hit theaters in 2014 and then again in 2020. The reason it took so long was that James Cameron wanted to get everything exactly right. He had a new Na'vi tribe, the Metkayina, and the action moved to the water, which brought its own complications. Cameron chose not to rush, and while he has a five-movie series mapped out, the last thing he wanted was to release a movie and jeopardize the rest of the franchise. It took Cameron a long time to perfect the underwater scenes, specifically the CG and 3D effects that he relies on so much.
The good news is that the next movies won't have the same waiting period as the time between the first and second Avatar movies. Cameron wrote the scripts for all four sequels before setting out to make Avatar: The Way of Water. In an interview, Cameron said, "The scripts took four years. You can call that a delay, but it’s not really a delay because from the time we pushed the button to really go make the movies, we’re clicking along perfectly... So when all the scripts were approved, everything was designed. Every character, every creature, every setting." will hit theaters in 2024.
Sources: EW
