Cameron signals longer Avatar saga as plans for four to five films surface
Costume designer Deborah Scott says Cameron is always plotting ahead, while the filmmaker has mapped through at least five with ideas for six and seven
James Cameron has mapped the Avatar saga well beyond the current installment, Avatar: Fire and Ash, with ideas for six and seven already on the table, even as he continues to develop the film that follows. The 71-year-old director has said he’s fully written through movie five and has concepts for six and seven, though he acknowledges he may hand the baton to others before the series concludes. Cameron has framed the universe as a long-term project, comparing it to enduring franchises that inspired him in his youth. He told People last year, “We’re fully written through movie five, and I’ve got ideas for six and seven.”
Deborah L. Scott, Oscar-winning costume designer who has collaborated with Cameron on multiple projects, told The Post she isn’t sure yet how far the saga will stretch. “I don’t know about six or seven,” Scott said. “We’ve always had a sort of plan for four or five, possibly. We’ll see how these movies do, how the public likes this one.” “Jim always has something up his sleeve. There are always new worlds to go to, in ‘Avatar’ or something else.”
The Avatar franchise, which has already generated billions of dollars at the global box office, is set on the lush alien moon Pandora and follows former Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and the Na’vi as they face evolving threats. Cameron has likened the fictional universe to the epic sci-fi worlds that inspired him growing up. “The world-building franchises that have been around since I was a kid – those were my inspirations,” he said in February 2024. “We’re still a young universe. We’re only two movies in, and we’re halfway through our third right now.”
“Pandora is always interesting,” Scott told The Post. “It’s exciting because there’s going to be new stuff. We’re not going to stay in the same place we are now, and I think that’s going to have incredible creative challenges.” Those challenges have become a hallmark of Cameron’s career, dating back to Titanic. Scott, who won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for the 1997 epic, noted that the same high bar applies to Avatar. “The bar that they set in terms of everything being perfect matches what I feel and what I do in my work,” she said. “So it makes for a good team. But it’s a very high bar, the reality that you’re working in.”
Fans were introduced to a mix of familiar and new faces in Fire and Ash. Scott teased that audiences will be drawn to Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldaña, and to a new character, Varang, portrayed by Oona Chaplin. “I have a soft spot for [Zoe Saldaña’s] Neytiri. I think she’s got a great character. Zoe’s amazing,” Scott said. “And of course, the new characters. Varang, played by Oona Chaplin. Oona’s performance is unbelievable. I think the fans are going to love her.”
Even as Cameron pushes the frontier of performance capture and CGI, Scott said the emotional core remains grounded in the actors. “When I look at the characters, I don’t see blue,” she remarked. “I see Sam Worthington, and I see Zoe Saldaña, because they’re so real.” Scott added that Cameron often had actors in costume before performance capture to help ground them in their characters before the digital process began. “Performance capture is really fun because there are so many actors involved on set at the same time. Jim had me, pretty often, dress the actors in either something related to their costumes or in their actual costumes so that they had a sense of what was going on before they had to remove it from the performance markers.”
James Cameron and Oona Chaplin behind the scenes on Avatar: Fire and Ash.
That hands-on, live-action feel is part of what Scott says makes the Avatar films unique. “Live action is pretty similar,” she said. “Since we approach our virtual movies in such a live-action way, by building the costumes and fitting the costumes, it doesn’t feel that much different. ‘Avatar’ films are probably the most creative of the things I’ve been able to do. They have no relationship to a period of time or a certain real-life situation. We’re world-building with the production designers and with Jim.”
Cameron’s approach continues to push the frontier of scale and immersion. “So that’s really fun because you start with great writing and an amazing director, and you follow that creative trail,” Scott concluded. “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is now in theaters. The cast is rounded out by Sigourney Weaver (Kiri), Stephen Lang (Miles Quaritch), Winslet (Ronal) and Michelle Yeoh (Dr. Karina Mogue).
