In many cases with franchises, we’ve seen studios split big event movies (“Wicked” and “Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows” being some previous examples of that) or attempt to stretch a single story in a chore of a trilogy (as we saw with New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson‘s “The Hobbit” movies taking a small whimsical fantasy story into a massive trilogy) as a way to make a boatload more at the box office. However, as James Cameron tells it, when it came to writing the “Avatar” sequels, he had to convince 20th Century Fox (under the old regime, before Disney took over) to allow him to split the “Avatar 2” script into “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Avatar: Fire & Ash.”
Cameron seemingly couldn’t grasp the studio’s concerns with the split attempt and dished to DiscussingFilm (via Variety), reminding them that they should be happy at the chance of raking in another $2 billion at the box office. “We were working on three scripts, and then it turned into four. Two got split into two and three,” Cameron said. “I actually got a fair bit of pushback from the studio. My counterargument was, ‘Wait a minute. What part of you getting another chance to make $2 billion is in question here?'”
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This would explain why the “Avatar” sequels went from three to four in the extensive development process on those scripts. And the school is out if the “Avatar 4” is going to be completed by Cameron after a handful of his previous musings about not knowing for sure if he’d finish the film (despite some “Avatar 4” scenes having been shot alongside “Fire & Ash”).
That said, it sounds like everything will come down to how much the next installment makes at the global box office, given the huge amounts of time/costs involved in making these last three films and isn’t 100% committed to the next two (we wouldn’t be all that shocked if we end up with a similar situtation to “Alita: Battle Angel,” where Cameron replaced himself as director by hiring Robert Rodriguez).
Some other projects in the works from Cameron include his fantasy team-up film “The Devils,” has been trying to make the Japanese-set WWII drama “Ghosts of Hiroshima,” and has been struggling to come up with a good idea for the next “Terminator” installment.
You can watch that exchange with Cameron and DF’s Andrew J. Salazar below, as “Avatar: Fire & Ash” (you can read the early reactions to the sequel here ahead of The Playlist’s review) heads to theaters on December 19.
Shane Salerno, who co-wrote AVATAR 5 (the final film in the franchise which isn’t dated until 2031), recently told me a funny story from the Avatar writers’ room.
— Andrew J. Salazar (@AndrewJ626) December 3, 2025
So, naturally, I had to ask James Cameron if it was true. pic.twitter.com/YjPqZhFZYK
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