Avatar 4 and 5 facing cancellation, James Cameron warns

I can’t quite wrap my head around the trajectory of Avatar. It’s the highest grossing film of all-time and yet, I don’t particularly know any die-hard Avatar fans. When you consider that it outperformed cultural juggernauts like Marvel and Star Wars, it's strange that Avatar has failed to have a lasting impact outside of box office figures.

On top of that, it’s taken well over a decade for a sequel to come to fruition. The franchise does utilise industry-leading motion capture so it’s to be expected that production will be lengthy, but it’s still weird that it’s taken 20th Century Studios 13 years to capitalise on Avatar’s success. The day is almost here though, Avatar: The Way of Water releases on 16 December, but the future of the franchise beyond that is already in jeopardy.

Check out the trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water below.

Waiting for an Avatar film is a bit like waiting for a bus. You stand there for an eternity and then four arrive at once. The Way of Water may be releasing next month, but James Cameron is already hard at work on Avatar 3, 4, and 5. In fact all three already have release dates. Avatar 3 is expected in December 2024, with the next film landing in 2026 and the final instalment in 2028. Someone realised that waiting 13 years for a sequel is perhaps a little bit too long.

Despite this though, Cameron has warned that there’s no certainty that these films will actually get made. In an interview with Total Film, Cameron explained that the fate of Avatar 4 and 5 hangs on the box office return of The Way of Water. “The market could be telling us we’re done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning: ‘Okay, let’s complete the story within movie three, and not go on endlessly,’ if it’s just not profitable,” he said.

“We’re in a different world now than we were when I wrote this stuff, even. It’s the one-two punch – the pandemic and streaming.“ By the sounds of it, Avatar 3 is definitely happening. The question is: Will it serve as a finale? If you are excited to see The Way of Water, it’s got a runtime of three hours and 10 minutes. For a film that’s all about water, it could be a big challenge to keep those loo breaks to a minimum. Just saying.