Yahoo Finance James Cameron Reveals He Already Has Plans for “Avatar” ‘6 and 7’ (Exclusive)
The third 'Avatar' movie is expected to hit theaters in 2025
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James Cameron at the 51st Annual Saturn Awards in Los AngelesAvatar 3 may have not hit theaters yet, but James Cameron has already got plans for the sixth and seventh films in the franchise.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE at the 51st annual Saturn Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, the director, 69, opened up about the sequels and his involvement.
“We're fully written through movie five, and I've got ideas for six and seven, although I'll probably be handing the baton on at that point,” Cameron told PEOPLE. “I mean, mortality catches up. But I mean, we're enjoying what we're doing. We're loving it. We get to work with great people.”
Cameron — who was honored with four awards at the ceremony, including best film direction — also spoke about how he wants Avatar to be a franchise like Star Wars and Star Trek.
“Star Trek, Star Wars, the world building franchises that have been around since I was a kid, those were my inspirations," said Cameron. "And as I was saying out there, we're still a young universe. We're only two movies in, we're halfway through our third right now, To have that kind of cultural impact over time, you got to pour all your heart and energy into it.”
Avatar’s third movie is expected to hit theaters in 2025, with Avatar 4 following in 2029 and Avatar 5 in 2031.
Cameron continued, “People are always asking us, ‘So why did you just keep working in the same…’ Why did Lucas keep working in the same thing? Why did Roddenberry keep working in the same thing? Because when you connect with people, why would you squander that? Why would you start over with something else that might not connect?”
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James Cameron at the 51st annual Saturn Awards in Los AngelesRelated: James Cameron Recalls How He 'Survived' After Nearly Drowning While Filming The Abyss Underwater
“And there are more stories to tell,” added Avatar producer Jon Landau, 63, to PEOPLE. “I mean, it's not like we're trying to come up with stories. He's got the stories and we took the time to lay it out across all four sequels.”
Meanwhile, Cameron went on to say that if the movies continue being successful — the first two films have become the No. 1 and No. 3 highest-grossing movies of all time — it proves that “people are innately empathetic.”
“They innately want a connection to each other,” he added. “They innately want beauty. And so many science fiction films are dystopian.”
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“Ours is actually dystopian in its message to some extent, but it's about beauty, it's about connection, it's about positive values, and that seems to be working,” Cameron continued. “So what does that tell us about us? And as human beings globally? Because the films are successful in all markets everywhere. And so I think that's empowering for us.”
While Avatar was released in 2009, Avatar: The Way of Water hit theaters in 2022 and grossed a whopping 2.3 billion dollars at the box office.
Cameron and Landau have remained fairly tight-lipped about the upcoming sequels, but the director teased of the franchise in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year, "We decided we needed to leap way ahead to places that people couldn’t have predicted [for The Way of Water] and we’re gonna do that again with movie 3 as well."
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