Visionary director James Cameron wants to make changes to the production of Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 to make them more cost-effective and easier to produce, but fans of the franchise have expressed concern about the possible implications of this new approach.
But let’s take it one step at a time: in recent days, James Cameron spoke about his plan for Avatar 4 and 5, revealing that he needs about a year to develop new technologies that will allow him to produce both films more efficiently, both in terms of time and cost. As you know, the mega-production of Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ashes was extremely expensive and took a very long time, with a budget of about $400 million for both films and filming having begun in 2017.
“You know, I’m going to focus on writing. I have several projects in the works,“ Cameron told The Empire Film Podcast. ”And Avatar 4 and 5 are still in development. We’ll be exploring some new technologies to try to make them more efficient. Because they’re terribly expensive to make and take a long time. I want to make them in half the time and at two-thirds the cost. That’s my goal. So it’ll take about a year to figure out how to do that.”
Upon hearing this, however, some Avatar fans fear that this technology might be generative AI: “I hope it’s not what I think it is,” wrote one user on X. “A far-too-obvious, under-the-radar AI launch,” commented another.
At one point, James Cameron said he was ready to walk away from the franchise if the third installment, Avatar: Fire and Ash, didn’t succeed at the box office. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, and the third film grossed over $1.5 billion (making Cameron the first director in history to make four consecutive billion-dollar films).
However, only a third of Avatar 4 has been filmed so far, and there is still a lot of work to be done on the fifth film. More recently, Cameron stated that a fourth film is “very likely,” and actress Sigourney Weaver promised that Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 will serve as the grand finale of the saga “I hope we can make it happen, because they are two incredible stories that embody everything Jim wanted to tell us for our own good as Earthlings, as human beings,” the actress who plays Kiri told GamesRadar+ during the promotion of The Mandalorian and Grogu.
As things stand, Disney’s official release schedule indicates that Avatar 4 will hit theaters on December 21, 2029, while the final chapter, Avatar 5, will follow on December 19, 2031. We’ll keep you updated…
