James Cameron hopes Avengers "fatigue" sets in soon, because he has all these Avatar movies coming out
Avengers: Infinity War is the penultimate film in Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but while the studio has yet to release any info on what we can expect from the new era, James Cameron’s already over it. According to Indiewire, the director, who’s out promoting his new AMC series, AMC Visionaries: James Cameron’s Story Of Science Fiction, told reporters over the weekend that he’s “hoping we’ll start getting Avenger fatigue here pretty soon.”
It’s not that Cameron doesn’t “love the movies,” including Black Panther, the Ryan Coogler film that recently edged out Titanic to become the third highest-grossing movie in the United States. But apparently Cameron—who’s plotting four sequels to Avatar, his sci-fi-infused Dances With Wolves retelling—thinks “there are other stories to tell besides hyper-gonadal males without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process. It’s like, oy!” Now sure, Cameron has a point that the MCU would benefit from putting someone other than a chiseled dude on a hero’s journey, who may or may not come up against some watered-down version of himself in the film’s denouement. But considering Cameron also thinks there’s room for a sixth Terminator movie (albeit one that rightly ignores Genysis) and four more movies that wonder “what if the noble savage myth, but in space?,” some people are reading his comments as dripping with faux concern—or professional jealousy.
Who knows, the filmmaker could still be smarting about Josh Brolin, who’s playing Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, turning down his Avatar movies. But this is far from the first time Cameron’s ripped on a property that everyone else seemed to be enjoying—last year, he called the characterization in Wonder Woman a “step backwards” for feminism, while also suggesting he’s the only person out here writing complex female characters. Director Patty Jenkins reminded Cameron that there are numerous ways to write strong women, and when asked about the Aliens director’s comments, Marvel’s Kevin Feige had a similarly diplomatic response. Vulture relayed Cameron’s remarks (though “hypergonadal” becomes “hypogonadal,” for some reason) to Feige, who decided to just focus on the fact that the famed director loves his movies. “Uh, he loves the movies!” Feige said, with a “knowing grin spreading on his face.” The MCU architect then “stood up, pumping his arm. ‘That’s awesome! Wow, James Cameron loves our movies! That’s exciting!’”