James Cameron has ideas for Avatar 6 and Avatar 7, but he might die before making them
"Mortality catches up," he says about his ideas for making even more Avatar movies
5,000 years ago, in 2017, James Cameron laid out his basic vision for the future of the Avatar franchise—which, at that point, was just the one movie. In addition to revealing that Avatar 2 would come out in December of 2020 (it didn’t), Cameron teased that Avatar 3 would come a year later (it didn’t), Avatar 4 would come in December of 2024 (it’ll be weird if it does), and Avatar 5 would come out in December of 2025 (it still could, but again, we’re a sequel behind his schedule). In a new chat with People, though, Cameron teased that he has ideas for Avatar 6 and Avatar 7, though he doesn’t think he’ll personally make it that far.
“We’re fully written through movie five,” he explained, “And I’ve got ideas for six and seven, though I’ll probably be handing the baton on at that point. I mean, mortality catches up.” He seemed to downplay the idea of mortality by noting that “we’re enjoying what we’re doing” on the Avatar movies, adding, “we’re loving it. We get to work with great people.”
As for why his vision for Avatar has always been on such a long timeline, he told People that he sees this as a “young universe” compared to Star Trek and Star Wars, and he says “you got to pour all your heart and energy into it” if you want your thing to have the staying power of those. On that note, he also responded to people who question why he has decided to dedicate what might be the rest of his career to this one universe, saying, “Why did Lucas keep working in the same thing? Why did Roddenberry keep working in the same thing? Because when you connect with people, why would you squander that? Why would you start over with something else that might not connect?”
It’s tough to argue with that. Avatar: The Way Of Water is the third highest-grossing movie of all time, behind only Avengers: Endgame and the first Avatar, so clearly these movies are speaking to people. Cameron says that’s because humans are “innately empathetic” and they’re drawn to these movies that are about making connections and “beauty” when so many other sci-fi movies are “dystopian.”
Avatar 3, whatever it ends up being called, is supposed to be released next December.