Last year’s movie earned $1.4 billion at the box office, a remarkable amount for any film, but around half the money made by the first Avatar ($2.9 billion), and nearly a billion less than Avatar: The Way of Water ($2.3 billion). At the same time, Avatar films are incredibly costly to produce, meaning that they need to earn huge amounts to turn a profit. <\/p>\n
With Avatar’s future unclear, Cameron has discussed the need to prioritize “other stories” that he wanted to see made during the “last act” of his career. The 71-year-old filmmaker has long had various other ideas for films other than Avatar sequels, though has not directed a non-Avatar blockbuster since 1997’s Titanic.<\/p>\n
Avatar Sequels Concept Art Revealed<\/p>\n
“That’s the question of the hour for me,” Cameron said in an interview<\/a> following his receipt of a prestigious Canadian arts award. “There’s been momentum in the Avatar universe for 21 years at this point because we started in 2005. I took a little time off to build a submersible and dive to the deepest spot on the planet, as you do, but I came back to Avatar after that. And it’s been kind of an unbroken continuum. <\/p>\n “So this is the point where I’m looking at the landscape and asking, ‘What are the other stories I want to tell? How many of them do I need to direct myself versus writing and\/or producing with other filmmakers?'” he continued.<\/p>\n What are these other stories? Cameron has long discussed adapting Ghosts of Hiroshima<\/a>, which focuses on the story of a man who survived both bombs that dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War 2. Cameron first discussed the project back in 2010<\/a> and has continued to show interest, and in 2024 said he hoped he would shoot the film last year<\/a> (something that did not happen). Other ideas that Cameron has previously discussed include an adaptation of Joe Abercrombie\u2019s dark fantasy book The Devils, plus Terminator and Alita: Battle Angel sequels. Which of these Cameron is considering shooting first, however, remains unclear.<\/p>\n “The criterion \u2014 I’ve literally mapped this out for myself over the last two weeks \u2014 I started with, ‘What will do the most good?’ I put that in block letters at the top,” Cameron continued. “And I started looking at all the projects I’m most fond of, asking, ‘How’s this going to improve our condition? How’s that going to make the world better for our kids?’<\/p>\n “I haven’t made those decisions yet. I’m still in this liminal state of mapping out… the last act, if you will. And I don’t know if that last act will last a year or 20 years.”<\/p>\n In April, an update from producer Rae Sanchini<\/a> stated that the scripts for Avatar 4 and 5 were in hand as the franchise’s team continued to move “full speed ahead.” But in May, Cameron said he was “looking at some new technologies” to try and get Avatar 4 and 5 made “in half the time for two-thirds of the cost,”<\/a> something that would need to take a year just to figure it out. <\/p>\n Disney has currently scheduled tentative release dates of December 21, 2029 for Avatar 4 and December 19, 2031 for Avatar 5 \u2014 but, again, these are just placeholders until plans are made concrete.\n<\/p>\n Image credit: Photo by Paul Morigi\/Getty Images for National Geographic<\/p>\n