While it was always likely Avatar: The Way of Water would be a box office hit, most didn't predict it was going to end up becoming the third highest-grossing movie ever released.
Interest in 3D has waned massively since 2009, while the huge amount of time that's passed since Avatar's debut left a lot of pundits convinced the follow-up would go largely ignored. That definitely wasn't the case, and filmmaker James Cameron deserves all the praise in the world for delivering a mega-hit like this (even if we didn't love the sequel).
Avatar 3 has already been shot, as have parts of the fourth movie. We know the director would like to make a fifth, but in the meantime, could the franchise expand to television?
This is a subject Cameron has broached before but, even as the popularity of streaming continues to increase, the director doesn't believe the moviegoing experience is going anywhere.
"I don’t think it’s ever going to go away, ’cause it’s something specific," he tells The Los Angeles Times. "The deal we make to go and immerse ourselves without distraction, it’s like doing yoga or taking a walk in the forest for a couple of hours. There’s something about it I still think is sacred."
As for whether he would bring Avatar to Disney+, it's off the table...for now.
"Right now, the economics don’t make sense to spin off any of our CG main characters onto TV. But the cost of these things will progressively come down as we introduce machine deep learning into the processes and make them more automated," Cameron explains. "Ask me again in five years."
Given the box office success of Avatar: The Way of Water, we're sure this is a franchise Disney intends to remain committed to for a very long time. With that in mind, we definitely can't discount the possibility of a small screen spin-off down the line.
Avatar 3 will be released in theaters on December 20, 2024.