Way before Avatar was released James Cameron said that the film could spawn a few sequels, with the aim of making a trilogy. However he always included the word ‘if’ in the sentence. ‘If Avatar is a success more will come.’
An AICN tipster who recently attended a Q&A session and Avatar screening with Cameron sent in the following scoop:
Don’t know if this is newsworthy, but I just saw a Variety Screening Series showing of Avatar at the Arclight theater in Hollywood tonight, followed with a Q&A with James Cameron and two of his visual effects artists. One of the artists mentioned that they’ll never again do this for the first time, meaning that everything they did in the making of Avatar was just a lot of instinctive grasping in the dark. Cameron agreed with him. He also told him to expect the studio to want another one, as they’d passed the billion $ mark. A second film will be easier, as the technology now exists, thanks to the movie. The moderator asked if there *would* be an Avatar sequel. To which Cameron answered that the plan had always been to make a trilogy of films. Finally, Cameron actually said it: “Yes, there’ll be another.”
As I said, I’m not sure how newsworthy this is, but thought I’d pass it on.
So there you have it. James Cameron has kinda sorta announced a sequel to Avatar. However, he’ll probably want to get to know his family again first. Then he’ll have to think of where to go in the next one (he said he’s got a trilogy-arch figured out). I think it would be cool if 20th Century Fox shot Avatar 2 and 3 back-to-back. It’ll keep costs down and it’ll mean we don’t have to wait until 2017 to see the trilogy complete.
One question about the sequel is whether it will be as successful as the first. Avatar is different, the technology is new, and the 3D experience is new to some people. But with a sequel everyone will have kinda been there before. By the time Avatar 2 comes out the technology will probably be the ‘norm’ as everyone will be using it. I’m sure the sequel will do well, but will it gross over $1 billion? I suppose Batman 3 will have similar pressure on it to perform exceptionally too.
