James Cameron has said there’s a reason he’s directed nothing but Avatar films for the past two decades — and it’s not because they make enormous piles of money.
Instead, Cameron told Rolling Stone, he sees the franchise as a “Trojan horse” to appeal to humanity’s better instincts, with the franchise’s themes of protecting the natural world designed to work “on your brain and your heart a little bit in a way.”
“I’ve justified making Avatar movies to myself for the last 20 years, not based on how much money we made, but on the basis that hopefully it can do some good,” Cameron said. “It can help connect us. It can help connect us to our lost aspect of ourself that connects with nature and respects nature and all those things.”
Before 2009’s original Avatar, Cameron’s previous turn in the director’s chair was 1997’s Titanic. Following the success of his blue-skinned alien franchise, Cameron has directed nothing else — and instead has dedicated much of this millenium to writing and filming a slew of sequels.
Avatar remains the highest-grossing movie of all time, and has earned a staggering $2.9 billion across several theatrical runs. (Avengers: Endgame overtook Avatar for a brief period, before Avatar then stole its crown back via a fresh re-release.) 2022’s sequel Avatar: The Way of Water earned an extremely respectable $2.3 billion, meanwhile, cementing it as the third-highest grossing film of all time — just ahead of Cameron’s own Titanic, which floats on $2.2 billion.
Fun fact: most of the top 10 highest-grossing films of all time are owned by Disney, including Avatar, Avengers: Endgame and Infinity War, Inside Out 2 and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Non-Disney films inside the top 10 are few and far between, but include Chinese animated blockbuster Ne Zha 2 and Jurassic World.
Next up from Cameron’s sci-fi franchise is Avatar: Fire and Ash, due to release on December 19, for which the director is still finalising post-production work. Beyond that, filming has already taken place for a fourth Avatar movie, due in 2029, and there are plans for a fifth entry early in the next decade.
“There’s no reason not to,” the 70-year-old director said when asked whether he would continue to helm Avatar in the years to come. “I’m healthy, I’m good to go. I’m not going to rule it out. I mean, I’ve got to make it in a vigorous way, to handle the kind of volume and energy of the work for another six or seven years. You know what I mean? I might not be able to do that… [but] if I can, I’ll just do it.”
Cameron will soon be taking some time away from Avatar, at least, to direct a film based on Charles Pellegrino’s book Ghosts of Hiroshima. As part of the same interview, Cameron also issued a fresh warning about AI gaining control over weapons systems, pointing to the potential for a “Terminator-style apocalypse.”
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
