The current montage of ‘Avatar 3’ runs 9 hours: James Cameron’s plans for the future of the saga

‘Avatar: The Water Meaning’ monopolizes the cinematic news while the industry remains very close to its box office results. While we wait to see if James Cameron can crack the crates a second time with the Na’vi, the director continues to work on the next chapter of the franchise.

‘Avatar 3’ is scheduled to premiere in December 2024 and was filmed at the same time as the second episode, so a huge amount of visual effects and post-production work awaits us. According to journalist Jeff Sneider, Cameron would have already delivered an early version of the third film and that cut would have lasted no less than nine hours..

Of course, there’s still a lot of editing work to do, but the director’s idea is to do the visual effects for the nine hours and, once that’s done, go to the editing room and start cutting.. Taking into account the complexity of the effects of this franchise, this means increasing the budget, part of which is destined for scenes that will never see the light of day. But James Cameron doesn’t play with pennies. ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ would have cost between 350 and 400 million dollars according to estimates, making it one of the most expensive films in history. That’s why it’s not worth it to be successful at the box office, they have to make figures that haven’t been seen for a long time.

Furthermore, the third chapter has an important role in the future of the saga, and it is serve as a definitive conclusion to the story of Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) if finally the second part does not achieve the desired results and Disney decides they can no longer give such sums of money to James Cameron: “The market might tell us we’re done in three months, or that we’re halfway through, meaning ‘alright, let’s complete the story in the third, and don’t go on forever if it’s not profitable. We’re in a different world than when I wrote them I commented in November. The final cut of “Avatar 3” will depend on whether it becomes the end of the story or whether it should lead to the other two sequels he has planned.

Next stop: Earth

They’ve already recorded a third of ‘Avatar 4’ “for logistical reasons,” producer Jon Landau explained, so the hope is that they can complete all of Cameron’s initial plan. The director has already explained what he would like to do in “Avatar 5” if he could make it: “There is a part of the story where we go to Earth. And we will open people’s eyes, we will open Neytiri’s eyes so that he can see what exists on Earth. The Earth is not represented only by the GDR. Since you define yourself by the choices you make in life, not all humans are evil. Not all Na’vi are good. And that’s what we want to show by going to Earth. We want to expose Neytiri to that.” he commented to Gizmodo.

‘Avatar 3’ will premiere on December 20, 2024. ‘Avatar 4’ will be released in theaters on December 18, 2026. And ‘Avatar 5’ will close the saga in theaters on December 22, 2028.