Legendary filmmaker James Cameron is finally considering letting the Avatar franchise go, and that should come as welcome news to everyone.
The ‘Avatar’ success story
Now don’t get me wrong, the Avatar trilogy has done more good for cinema than bad.
The 2009 original is still the biggest film of all time, grossing approximately $2.9 billion worldwide while redefining what is possible through motion capture and visual effects.
A 14-year wait for the 2022 sequel, The Way of Water, quenched such frenzied anticipation so as to grant that film third place on the all-time box office list after grossing $2.3 billion worldwide.
Fans of the Pandora set series only had to wait three more years for the third entry, Fire and Ash.
It retreaded familiar ground for the most part, despite introducing Oona Chaplin’s fiery Na’vi villain Varang, and while it grossed $1.5 billion worldwide, it was seen as less of a success compared to its predecessors.
Moving on from ‘Avatar’
It appears that Cameron is prepared to leave things there.
Speaking after receiving the 2026 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in July, Cameron said, “There’s been a lot of momentum in the Avatar universe for me, across 21 years at this point, because we started in 2005.
“I took a little time off to build a submersible to dive to the deepest spot of the planet, as you do, but then I came back to Avatar after that, and it’s been kind of an unbroken continuum.
“So this is the point when I’m looking around at the landscape and thinking, what are the other stories I want to tell? How many of them do I need to direct myself, versus writing and/or producing and working with other filmmakers?
“I’m still in this liminal state, mapping out kind of the last act, if you will. And I don’t know if that last act is a year or twenty years, but we’ll see.”
Cameron should embrace new projects in his future
Where this leaves the Avatar franchise is unclear, but it heavily suggests Cameron may wish to step away from the director’s chair for the currently slated Avatar 4 and Avatar 5, poised to release in 2029 and 2031, respectively.
He’s previously stated those sequels would need to be produced for a far lesser cost and in a quicker span of time, but it would be grand if he hands the keys to the franchise to someone else.
You see, someone of Cameron’s talent and ability to conjure new narrative worlds shouldn’t be staying too long in one arena.
This is the filmmaker who gave audiences The Terminator, Aliens, and Titanic.
Think of what he could achieve outside of Pandora?
Cameron claims he’s in “the last act of his career”.
Let’s hope he has one or more fresh masterpieces to share with us all before he’s done.
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