James Cameron Says Avatar Sequels Are A 'Family Saga'

When James Cameron does something, he tends to go big. That's why it's taking so long for him to make a sequel to Avatar–he's making four, instead. And while details are harder to come by than Unobtanium, the director recently revealed the overall focus of the installments to come.

"The storyline in the sequels really follows Jake and Neytiri and their children," Cameron told Variety. "It's more of a family saga about the struggle with the humans."

As CinemaBlend points out, he doesn't specify whether Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) would already have kids at the beginning of Avatar 2 or if they'd come along later.

Cameron did, however, have a lot to say about Toruk, the Cirque du Soleil prequel to Avatar. He served as a consultant on the production, but he told Variety he gave the directors "pretty full rein to just riff on what they had seen in the Avatar world from the first film."

Toruk: The First Flight takes place on the planet Pandora before humans arrive, and it follows the quest of two Na'vi warriors. Cameron said he mostly chimed in when the project veered too far from his primary vision.

"There's a tendency sometimes to go a little beyond the spiritual mysticism in the movie into actual magic," he said. "They can't have any actual magic, because it's not a universe that allows for true magic. But it definitely exists in a kind of a mystical, spiritual realm. The films do, and the show definitely does as well. It was that kind of creative conversation."

So when can we expect the sequels? Cameron said the first could come out around Christmas 2018, but he doesn't want there to be a long gap between subsequent installments. "I want them to be released as close together as possible," he said. "If it's an annual appointment to show up at Christmas, I want to make sure that we're able to fulfill on that promise."