Following the release of the highly anticipated sequel to the highest grossing film of all time, Avatar, the Titanic director revealed to Robert Rodriguez in a conversation for Variety that he was trying to replicate the universes or ways of storytelling of major franchises like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings while producing Avatar: The Way of Water.
Cameron said, “It’s dangerous to tell a story with a lot of characters because it can lack focus. But I just took that challenge on. There’s this epic landscape with epic storytelling. I was trying to emulate a ‘Star Wars’ universe or ‘Lord of the Rings.’ Something that’s a persistent world that people can come back to and enjoy over time.”
Also Read: James Cameron Sees Comparison of Avatar to Star Wars and Marvel as an Irrelevant Argument
The Terminator director noted that what makes his production different from what he was trying to imitate was that he had to write his own world alone. But he didn’t want to continue building the narrative by himself, so he gathered a group of writers to help him create multiple storylines.
He narrated, “If you look at something like ‘The Rings of Power,’ with those multiple storylines and interesting characters, that’s what I was aspiring to. But they had a guide; I didn’t. I had to write my own ‘Silmarillion’ or ‘Lord of the Rings’ in the form of notes. But I also didn’t want to do it all alone. I knew that I was going to do multiple movies, so I created a little writers’ room like you would for a TV show.”
Cameron’s Avatar 2 has stunned the press ahead of its nationwide release, with early rave reviews and praises predicting a half-billion-dollar opening weekend. See the press’ early reactions below:
Avatar: The Way of Water is set 15 years after the first Avatar film, with Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) returning as parents to Kiri (Sigourney Weaver). It will hit the theaters on December 16, 2022, with sequels scheduled for release on December 20, 2024, December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028, respectively.
