Avatar is often criticized for its alleged lack of cultural impact. Movie critics often point out that viewers might not be able to remember the plot or the characters’ names, regardless of how much money the film made. Now that Avatar: The Way of Water is releasing in a few weeks after a thirteen-year-long wait, it will have the opportunity to prove if the original film made a cultural impact or not. While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, the producer, director, and writer James Cameron made rebuttals to the often-used argument:

While certain franchises like Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe have had more cultural impact than Avatar, they’ve had more films. A lot more films, and a plethora of spin-offs, with many different writers, directors, studios, and actors that can all work on different projects at the same time. James Cameron is the sole director of the Avatar franchise, and it was never his intention to be making Avatar movies nonstop. He reveals that his home studio, 20th Century Fox, was eager for an Avatar sequel shortly after its release, but he had other life plans:

“When you have extraordinary success, you come back within the next three years… That’s just how the industry works. You come back to the well, and you build that cultural impact over time. Marvel had maybe 26 movies to build out a universe, with the characters cross-pollinating. So it’s an irrelevant argument. We’ll see what happens after this film.”

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The ‘fun’ here refers to Cameron’s solo dive into the Mariana Trench in 2012. He was the first person to do so, and he did it in a submarine he had helped design. His other projects include investments in agriculture to make protein-rich vegan foods, and his nonprofit organization, the Avatar Foundation, which strives to promote indigenous rights and help save the environment.

“I was actually the one putting the brakes on it and saying, I don’t know if I want to go down this road again… I started confronting this issue of, ‘Do I even want to make another movie, let alone another Avatar movie?’ Because I was having so much fun."

James Cameron Says He Doesn’t Want to Make an Empire

     20th Century Studios

It’s not necessarily about the money, according to James Cameron, although Avatar’s financial success certainly made future sequels possible. While other blockbuster franchises can arguably be described as ’empires,’ that’s not what Cameron wants for his Avatar saga:

One of the lead actresses, Sigourney Weaver, also confirmed Cameron’s movie-making sentiment, calling him “a much more relaxed director… He’s still driven, but it’s much warmer colors.”

“I don’t define success and wealth as things, but as experiences between people and between us and nature and places — things that really feed you… I’m not trying to build an empire here… I’m just trying to make some cool movies."

Another reason Avatar: The Way of Water took so long to make - besides Cameron being occupied with other projects, and having a ‘relaxed’ approach - was that he wanted to write out most of the script for the second, third, fourth, and fifth Avatar films before he even began shooting the next one. That process took four years. Cameron confirms that his Avatar saga is already fully written:

Shooting for Avatar: The Way of Water began all the way back in September 2017 - over a half-decade ago. They weren’t just filming the second Avatar film, however, as they also fully shot the third film and even part of the fourth. Despite this, post-production can be an expensive (and lengthy) process, so the box-office results of Avatar: The Way of Water will still be pivotal in the release of further sequels.

“It’s all written out, stem to stern, four scripts, and fully designed… We know exactly where we’re going, if we get the opportunity to do it. And that opportunity will simply be market-driven, if people want it, if they like this movie enough.”

Avatar: The Way of Water will release in theaters on December 16th, 2023, on both IMAX and regular screens. Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver co-wrote the script with director James Cameron. The film will star Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, and Kate Winslet.