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Opening Pandora's Box: James Cameron Defends 11-Year Wait For 'Avatar 2'

For those of us who are feeling a little "blue" that Cameron is yet to deliver his long-promised sequel, fear not, the director is here to defend his decision.

By Tom ChapmanPublished 6 years ago 2 min read
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'Avatar' [Credit: 20th Century Fox]

It is a well known fact that time waits for no man — well, unless you are #JamesCameron, that is. Hollywood has something of a soft spot for the Terminator and Aliens maestro, who can seamlessly weave his action magic into any film to give us an epic showdown of macho men and fearless heroines.

In 2009, Cameron took us out into space and landed us on the jungle world of Pandora for his eco-friendly blockbuster #Avatar. Becoming the highest-grossing film of all time, it was unsurprising that a whole ream of sequels were green-lit, but then everything went quiet(ish). For those of us who are feeling a little "blue" that Cameron is yet to deliver his long-promised sequel, fear not, the director is here to defend his decision.

I'm Blue (Da Ba Dee)

When #Avatar2 eventually swoops into cinemas at the tail end of 2020, it will have been 11 years since we left the Na'vi behind. However, speaking to CNN, Cameron reminded us of some other sizeable gaps between his work on the first two Terminator films and taking over from Ridley Scott for Aliens:

“It was a seven year gap between 'The Terminator' and 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day,' seven year gap between 'Alien' and 'Aliens'... It’s going to be obviously more like a 10 year gap between 'Avatar' and 'Avatar 2.' But 'Avatar 2' you are going to with not the promise, but the certainty of three more films beyond that, and that’s a very different concept with the audience. And a lot of the delay has been around creating that overall vision."

In this time, you could probably have charted your own mission to Pandora and grown your own planet of mind trees and prehistoric Pterodactyls, but you have to admire the director's vision. There is also that promise of three more sequels, to give us a grand total of five Avatar films. The three following films are scheduled for 2021, 2024, and 2025, but with Avatar 2 originally slated for 2018, we all know how the timings can slip. Hypothetically, if Cameron kept up his current work schedule, it would mean that he would be 95 by the time the franchise comes to a close — an ambitious age by anyone's standards.

Hopefully the buzz around Avatar 2 will jumpstart the rest of the series and mean that we can stay on track for the subsequent films. We do know that Avatar 2 has signed Fear The Walking Dead actor Cliff Curtis, who is tipped to play the leader of the Metkayina reef clan, which will be a major role in the rest of the franchise. However, with an extended wait between films, it becomes increasingly harder to lure your cast back in — stars like Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington have somewhat grown in Hollywood popularity.

In addition, it is also an uphill struggle to keep the public's attention span. Yes, Avatar was a sprawling piece of azure amazement to behold, but after numerous rewatches and promises of more to come, you could argue that the fire has gone out a little since 2009. Little is known about the ongoing arc of the story, but expect more mechanical menaces, human invasions, and non-recyclable waste to threaten the Na'Vi and their peaceful world of hippie communes and inter-species bonking.

(Source: CNN)

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About the Creator

Tom Chapman

Tom is a Manchester-based writer with square eyes and the love of a good pun. Raised on a diet of Jurassic Park, this ’90s boy has VHS flowing in his blood. No topic is too big for this freelancer by day, crime-fighting vigilante by night.

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