James Cameron Has a Backup Plan for ‘Avatar’ If ‘Hearth & Ash’ Flops

December is right here, and with it, a brand new Avatar film. These films maintain making that vacation cash, and the upcoming Fire & Ash seems to maintain that going. But when for no matter cause, it underperfomed and this was the final film within the sequence? James Cameron’s received a contingency plan.

On a current episode of Matt Belloni’s “The Town” podcast, the filmmaker mentioned he was “completely” ready to shut the ebook on the franchise if wanted, acknowledging he’s been “in Avatar land for [30] years. If that is the place it ends, cool.” He’s not open to fully handing issues over to another person—”I might produce it. I don’t assume there’d ever be a model the place there’s one other Avatar film that I didn’t produce carefully,” he talked about—but when want be, he’ll tie issues up with a ebook.

Sure, actually: there’s apparently simply one open story thread on the finish of Hearth & Ash, and he’ll convey it to the web page. However once more, that’s provided that this new film underperforms. Why is that this on his thoughts? He talked about issues of “forces” like “sequelitis,” streaming, and covid that might maintain audiences away. Funnily sufficient, these have been additionally issues to be raised about The Approach of Water in 2022, and look how that went. To his level, although, 2025’s not been the very best yr for franchise: audiences typically bounced on M3GAN 2.0 and Thunderbolts, to the purpose Blumhouse admitted it would’ve overestimated interest in its killer cyborg.

Then once more, Wicked: For Good and Zootopia 2 each look able to make a killing on the field workplace over the subsequent few weeks, so we’ll see how Avatar: Hearth & Ash does when it lands on December 19.

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