James Cameron confirms ‘Avatar 4’ and ‘5’ will happen
Avatar director James Cameron has confirmed that the fourth and fifth films in the series will be made.
The long-awaited second film in the series – The Way Of Water – finally landed last month, with three more sequels already planned.
Despite this, questions had been raised about the series’ profitability, and whether the third, fourth and fifth editions would make it to the big screen. Cameron recently suggested that the series could end after the third film if it doesn’t perform at the box office.
Speaking on HBO Max’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? show (via The Hollywood Reporter), Cameron said that “the momentum that [The Way Of Water] has now” means it will “easily” pass our break even in the next few days.”
This means, according to Cameron, that he now “can’t wiggle out of” making the future sequels.
“I know what I’m going to be doing the next six or seven years,” he added. “The point is we’re going to be okay. I’m sure that we’ll have a discussion soon with with the top folks at Disney about the game plan going forward for Avatar 3, which is already in the can – we’ve already captured and photographed the whole film so we’re in extended post-production to do all that CG magic.
“And then Avatar 4 and 5 are both written. We even have some of 4 in the can. We’ve begun a franchise at this point. We’ve begun a saga that can now play out over multiple films.”
Elsewhere, Cameron recently revealed that he shot scenes for Avatar 3 and 4 in advance to avoid Stranger Things-style ageing issues with the younger cast members.
The recently released second film introduced a number of child characters, including Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, who was seven years old when cast and is now 13) and Spider (Jack Champion, who was 12 when cast, but is now 18).
Filming on Avatar 3 is said to be finished, having been shot simultaneously with The Way Of Water. The third film is scheduled to be released on December 20, 2024.
Following its release, Avatar: The Way Of Water made $1billion (£831m) at the global box office in just 14 days. It became the fastest film to pass the milestone in 2022 and was only the third film to do so after Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion.
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Will Richards
NME
