James Cameron has been sitting back and rolling in the adulation to have greeted Avatar: The Way of Water, with the long-awaited sci-fi sequel proving to be every bit the monster that its predecessor was.
Having become the sixth highest-grossing release in the history of cinema in under a month, crashing through the $2 billion barrier is expected to happen long before the end of the week, so any concerns that a lack of profitability would prevent the franchise from expanding beyond a trilogy were obviously completely unfounded.
As things stand, Avatar 3 is set to hit theaters in December of 2024, with a two-year gap between installments marking the fastest back-to-back Cameron features to have landed since True Lies and Titanic in 1994 and 1997. The Last Airbender fans might not be best pleased about the plans to introduce fire-based Na’vi, but the filmmaker went ahead and dropped some new details while speaking to Deadline on the Critics Choice Awards red carpet.
“Fire has a symbolic purpose in the film and there’s a culture that is specifically around that concept. That’s probably saying too much as we speak. You’re going to meet two completely new cultures in the next film. We met the Omaticaya, we met the Metkayina, and you’re going to meet two new cultures in the next film, and it kind of rove a little more freely around the world of Pandora to different places.”
13 years drummed up no shortage of buzz and anticipation for The Way of Water, but it does lead us to wonder if such a short window between sequels will hamper the third chapter’s box office performance. Then again, it takes an idiot to doubt Cameron, so he’ll probably deliver yet another one of the top-earning titles of all-time.