James Cameron Clashes With Studio Over Avatar 3 — And He’s Not Backing Down

James Cameron being James Cameron: he took one Avatar sequel script, split it in two, and suddenly the franchise roadmap changed. And yes, the studio had thoughts.

How one sequel became two (and the series ballooned)

After Avatar blew up in 2009, Cameron pulled together a writers room to map out a trilogy of sequels. That plan did not survive contact with the scripts. As he tells Discussing Film, they started out developing three screenplays, and then the structure morphed into four. The big pivot: the script that became Avatar: The Way of Water was too packed, so he split it. Half became The Way of Water. The other half is now Avatar 3, titled Fire and Ash. That shuffle pushed what was going to be the third film down to the fourth slot. Net result: instead of three sequels, there are now four, expanding the saga to five movies total.

The pushback and Cameron's math

This was not an instantly popular call with the brass. Cameron says the studio pushed back on the expansion. His response was very Cameron.

'I actually got a fair bit of pushback from the studio.'

'Wait a minute. What part of you getting another chance to make $2 billion is in question here?'

Hard to argue with the track record. The original Avatar still sits at the top of the all-time worldwide box office with $2.9 billion. The Way of Water did $2.3 billion in 2022. You can guess what Disney would love to see from Fire and Ash when it hits theaters on December 19.

Why this came up now

The conversation surfaced during a Discussing Film chat that followed a bit of writer-room lore making the rounds: journalist Andrew J. Salazar mentioned that Shane Salerno — who co-wrote Avatar 5, planned as the finale and currently undated until at least 2031 — told him a funny story from those sessions, so Salazar put it to Cameron. That opened the door to Cameron laying out how the split actually happened and how the studio reacted.

Where the franchise stands

• Avatar (2009): $2.9B worldwide, still the highest-grossing film ever.
• Avatar: The Way of Water (2022): $2.3B worldwide.
• Avatar 3: Fire and Ash: in theaters December 19.
• Avatar 4: Cameron has already shot some scenes; whether he finishes it — and then moves to 5 — depends on how 3 performs.
• Avatar 5: co-written by Shane Salerno; intended as the final chapter; not dated, with 2031 floated as the earliest target.

So yes, the road to Fire and Ash was bumpier than it looked. Classic Cameron move, though: when the story gets too big, he does not trim — he builds a bigger road.