Director James Cameron has suggested that the upcoming Avatar: Fire And Ash could potentially be the final film in the franchise.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker made movie history with 2009’s Avatar, set on an alien world where indigenous beings, The Na’vi, rose up against humans invading their land for resources. The film remains the highest grossing movie of all time at over $2.9billion (£2.1billion), while 2022 sequel Avatar: The Way Of Water sits at third with $2.3billion (£1.7billion).
Despite this success, the filmmaker is aware that the sluggish post-COVID box office and franchise weariness may mean the forthcoming third film doesn’t do as well, and that the fourth and fifth instalments may not go ahead.
“Sequelitis,” Cameron said on The Town podcast. “People tend to dismiss sequels. Unless it’s the third Lord of the Rings film and you want to see what happens to everybody, which in my mind this is. This is the culmination of a story arc, but that may not be how the public sees it.”
When questioned further about the possibility of Fire And Ash being the last movie, he revealed that the film wraps up the story arcs of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and ends with one unresolved subplot that could be completed in other media. “If this is where it ends, cool,” Cameron says. “There is one open thread. I’ll write a book.”
When asked if he would be OK with leaving the franchise behind, he replied: “Absolutely. I’ve been in Avatar land for 20 years, actually 30 years because I wrote it in ’95, but I wasn’t working continuously on it for those first ten years.”
One line he would draw, however, is handing over complete control of future films to someone else. “Absolutely not,” he said. “Look, I have choices there. There are levels in which I immerse. I could produce. I don’t think there’d ever be another Avatar movie that I didn’t produce closely.”
Avatar: Fire And Ash is in cinemas from December 19.
Recently, Miley Cyrus announced an original song for the movie, inspired by the devastating L.A. fires in January.
