James Cameron has already shot scenes for ‘Avatar’ 3 and 4 to avoid ‘Stranger Things’ ageing issue
James Cameron has revealed that he has already shot some of the proposed scenes for Avatar 3 and 4 to avoid the ageing hurdle that the Duffer Brothers encountered earlier this year with their adolescent Stranger Things cast.
Avatar: The Way Of Water, the recently released sequel to the 2009 blockbuster, introduced several child characters, including Trinity Jo-Li Bliss as Tuk, who was seven years old when cast and is now 13 and Jack Champion’s Spider, who was 12 when cast, but is now 18.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Titanic director explained that the first, second and third instalments of the fourth film had to be completed in one production because Champion was “growing like a weed”.
“Otherwise, you get – and I love Stranger Things – but you get the Stranger Things effect, where they’re supposed to still be in high school [but] they look like they’re 27,” Cameron said. “You know, I love the show. It’s okay, we’ll suspend disbelief. We like the characters. But, you know.”
In the same interview, producer Jon Landau added that all of the newly introduced characters will continue to be part of the Avatar story in the upcoming instalments. “Each movie is going to introduce audiences to new clans, new cultures on Pandora,” Landau said. “Once we introduce a character, they stay a part of the ongoing evolution. We just add to it”.
Landau added: “So you can expect to see the Metkayina that you meet in this movie in subsequent movies. There are other clans that we’ll introduce in movie three that you’ll see in movie four, and so on and so forth.”
Cameron has revealed that the Avatar franchise will consist of five films in total, with the third, fourth and fifth expected over the next decade or so. However, the filmmaker added that the franchise could end after the third film if the franchise dwindles at the box office.
“The market could be telling us we’re done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning, ‘OK, let’s complete the story within movie three, and not go on endlessly,’ if it’s just not profitable,” the filmmaker told Total Film.
Avatar 3 is already complete and is slated for release on December 20th, 2024. See the official trailer for The Way Of Water below.
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