James Cameron revealed in an interview with Discussing Film that he received pushback from the studio when he decided to expand the number of “Avatar” sequels from three films to four. After the record-breaking success of the original “Avatar” in 2009, Cameron assembled a writer’s room to begin developing the continuation of a story across three sequels.
“We were working on three scripts and then it turned into four. Two got split into two and three,” Cameron said about his decision to split what was the original script for “Avatar: The Way of Water” into both “The Way of Water” and a new third movie, “Fire and Ash.” The decision meant that what was planned to be the third “Avatar” movie would now be the fourth, bringing the total number of films in the franchise to five.
“I actually got a fair bit of pushback from the studio,” Cameron said. “My counterargument was, ‘Wait a minute. What part of you getting another chance to make $2 billion is in question here?’”
The original “Avatar” remains the highest-grossing movie in history (unadjusted for inflation) with $2.9 billion. Cameron knew what he was talking about with his counterargument to the studio as 2022’s “The Way of Water” grossed $2.3 billion to become the third highest-grosser in history. Now the pressure is on for “Fire and Ash” to cross the $2 billion mark at the worldwide box office later this month.
Cameron previously revealed that he’s already shot footage for “Avatar 4,” but going back to finish the next sequel and continue into “Avatar 5” will all depend on the success of “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” Speaking to Collider in 2022, the filmmaker revealed that the “Avatar 4” script was the first “Avatar” sequel not to receive a single note from studio executives.
“I can’t tell you the details, but all I can say is that when I turned in the script for [‘The Way of Water’], the studio gave me three pages of notes,” Cameron said. “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, the creative executive over the films, wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy fuck.’ 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?”
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” opens in theaters Dec. 19.
