It came, it did big, big, big money, and then it completely vanished again and everyone is wondering what just happened? The trajectory for Avatar: The Way Of Water was exactly the same as for the original Avatar. Pop culture left untroubled, with critics and commentators left confounded, but studio heads and producers left positively swimming in cash. It might actually be some kind of witchcraft. Meanwhile, a select few Outposters can say “We told you so!”
Now in an interview with People magazine, the man who proved everyone wrong again says the third Avatar movie remains on track for a December 2025 release and has spoken more about the upcoming sequels.
The lesson? Don’t doubt a man who has his own submarine.
First of all, James Cameron said production on the third movie is much simpler because there is no pandemic. The first time around there were multiple halts, then a raft of restrictions that left them really pushed towards the end of post-production to hit their deadlines. He confirmed there is going to be a big time jump between Avatar 3 and Avatar 4, so he shot a lot of Avatar 3 early to ensure proper continuity:
“We did the [motion capture] capture on three and the live-action photography on three as an intermingled production with [‘Avatar: The Way of Water’], and we even did part of movie four because our young characters are all going to have a big time jump in movie four.
We see them and then we go away for six years and we come back, and so the part where we come back is the part we haven’t shot yet. So we’ll start on that after three is released.”
This was necessary due to a four year gap between the third and fourth films, with Avatar 4 arriving in cinemas on December 19th 2029, and Avatar 5 in 2031. Apparently he expects me to be going to see an Avatar movie well into the second half of my fifth decade on the planet. This will also mean the franchise is 22 years old by the time the fifth movie is released.
“How long, James?”
He has also been talking to GQ magazine where he gave more detail on where he intends to take this story in the next instalments:
“The big [creative] advance in [Avatar 3] is just going to be greater character depth. We’re seeing new cultures, new creatures – all the same stuff you’d expect from an Avatar movie, but the whole idea of this cycle of films is to live with these people and go on this epic journey with them.
So I think it’s not about, ‘We’re going to show you the best water [VFX] ever done’ – but you get more into the heart and soul of the characters. And there’s some very interesting new characters that come in as well. This is a journey over time. It will play out through movie three, into movie four and movie five. There’s an epic cycle to the whole thing.”
OK, hands up who hasn’t seen the second movie yet?
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