After a hiatus of 11 years, James Cameron is getting back to work on the long-awaited next installment of the Avatar film series. Avatar: The Way of Water is the sequel to the critically acclaimed original, which was released in 2009. However, The Way of Water is just the beginning of the planned sequels that director James Cameron has in the works. Cameron plans to release a third movie in 2024 and a fourth in 2026.
Cameron talked about the anticipated major hit's sequel, the untitled Avatar 4, and provided a portion of the conversation that took place in one of the executive meetings at the studio:
“I can’t tell you the details, but all I can say is that when I turned in the script for 2, the studio gave me three pages of notes. And when I turned in the script for 3, they gave me a page of notes, so I was getting better. When I turned in the script for 4, the studio executive, and creative executive over the films wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy f!#k.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are the notes?’ And she said, ‘Those are the notes.’ Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way, right?”
According to Cameron, he created the scripts for all of his upcoming films before beginning production on The Way of Water.
“My model was what Peter Jackson did with The Lord of the Rings, which was a crazy bet in its time. And really hats off to that, that they took that chance to launch on all three of those films. But he had the books mapped out, so he could always show the actors what they needed to know about their character arc. So I felt I had to do the same thing. I had to play this as if the books already existed. So the only way for us to do that was to write all the scripts and let the actors read all the scripts and see where their characters were going and what it all meant. Not that that’s actable at the moment, but I think it’s something that the actors could work into their preparation for their characters.”
Cameron also said of Avatar 4, "I think you know what this is, but you don't. , there should be no problem with people wanting more of what Cameron is doing."
On December 16th, audiences will be able to see Avatar: The Way of Water when it lands in theaters.