Avatar: The Way of Water stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña didn't need much convincing to sign on for more than one sequel.
"He could have said 60 movies, and I would’ve been like, 'Done. Where’s the pen in the paper and I’ll sign right here. Done,' Saldaña told The Wrap about Avatar director James Cameron. "You want work with a collaborator that respects everybody," Worthington added. "Whether you’ve never done a movie or Kate Winslet who is an icon. You want someone that can navigate his way amongst all of those people and leads by example. The guy took up the hobby of free diving. That wasn’t just something he asked us to do. He’d already conquered it before he asked us to do it."
The Way of Water is set a decade after the events of 2009's Avatar and sees Worthington and Saldaña reprise their respective roles as Jake Sulley and Neytiri. Other returning cast members include Stephen Lang as Colonel Quaritch and Sigourney Weaver. Cameron has planned three more films in the Avatar saga, though the director has stated that Avatar 4 and 5 will depend on the success of the first two sequels, including The Way of Water.
"If we make some money with two and three, it's all mapped out," Cameron said. "Scripts are already written, everything's designed. So just add water." Even with multiple sequels planned, the director has spoken about his initial hesitation to make multiple Avatar films, worried that a sequel might spoil the original film's success.
Avatar remains the highest-grossing film of all time. Its sequel is reportedly one of the most expensive films ever made with a budget between $350 million and $400 million. It has been implied by Cameron that The Way of Water will need to make over $2 billion worldwide in order to break even. As The Way of Water continues to succeed at the box office, the sequel is poised to meet its $2 billion box office milestone, with a current worldwide total of $1.708 billion. In its fourth weekend in theaters, the film became one of the top 5 highest-grossing films of all time.
In a recent interview, Cameron stated that as The Way of Water continues to turn a profit, he will now need to start working on the subsequent installments in the Avatar franchise. "It looks like with the momentum that the film has now that we’ll easily pass our break even in the next few days, so it looks like I can’t wiggle out of this and I’m gonna have to do these other sequels...," he said. "I know what I’m going to be doing the next six or seven years."
Avatar: The Way of Water is now in theaters.
Source: The Wrap