James Cameron Confirms Plans for ‘Avatar’ ‘6 and 7’

“Avatar: The Way of Water” cost $400 million to make, and turned out to be 2022’s most profitable movie, grossing $2.3 billion worldwide. In addition, it placed James Cameron as the only filmmaker in history to have had three movies among the top 20 highest-grossing of all time.

‘The Way of Water’ was seen as a major risk by many in the industry, but Cameron proved them wrong, yet again. The result is that we’re going to get three more ‘Avatar’ movies, released in the next six years. ‘Avatar 3’ in December 2025. Additionally, ‘Avatar 4’ will hit theaters in December 2029, followed by ‘Avatar 5’ in December 2031.

And, guess what? Cameron won’t be done there. He’s now confirming plans for ‘Avatar 6’ and ‘Avatar 7’:

“We're fully written through movie five, and I've got ideas for six and seven, although I'll probably be handing the baton on at that point,” Cameron told PEOPLE. “I mean, mortality catches up. But I mean, we're enjoying what we're doing. We're loving it. We get to work with great people.”

Cameron will be 76 by the time time the fifth Avatar is released in theaters. He’s going to be making ‘Avatar’ movies for the rest of his life. The good news here is that it sounds like he won’t be directing 6 and 7, he’ll be “passing the baton” to another filmmaker, or so he says. He’ll probably still have a major say in them.

It was early last year that Cameron had expressed interest in shooting this long-gestating passion project of his, titled "The Last Train From Hiroshima.” Back in 2010, Cameron had optioned Charles Pellegrino's nonfiction book "The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back." He put up his own money to get the option.

Cameron hoped to take time before "Avatar 4" to direct ‘Hiroshima.’ Let’s hope that’s still very much in the plans, although he seems to constantly be busy in post-prod work with these ‘Avatar’ movies. I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘Hiroshima’ has been out in the backburner.

The Canadian-born filmmaker started working on the first “Avatar” movie in 1999. From a filmmaking standpoint, it’s all he’s been concentrating on since then. This means that Cameron has almost exclusively been in ‘Avatar’ mode for nearly 25 years.

I’m not saying it’s a waste of time, he seems to be genuinely passionate about these movies and, more importantly, the sequel made boatloads of money. However, from my point of view, as someone who was thrilled to no ends by Cameron’s visual miracles in “The Terminator,” “T2,” “Aliens,” and “Titanic,” I can’t help but hope he distances himself from Pandora for a bit and, at the very least, directs ‘Hiroshima.’