James Cameron Reveals Why He Shot 'Avatar' Sequels Back-to-Back, Says He Wanted to Avoid the 'Stranger Things' Issue With the Kids
James Cameron has finally revealed why he shot Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 with a bit of Avatar 4 back-to-back. Making sure that the child actor's don't age out of their roles, James Cameron wanted to maintain that level of authenticity between the movies.
Filmmaker James Cameron, whose VFX marvel Avatar: The Way of Water recently released, has indicated that he's game-planning far into the future. According to Deadline, an online entertainment news website, Cameron has told Entertainment Weekly that he's shot Avatar 3 and a bit of Avatar 4 concurrently with the recently released sequel. Avatar The Way of Water: From Sam Worthington as Jake Sully to Kate Winslet as Ronal, Check Out What the Cast Looks Like IRL Compared to Pandoran Avatars.
The filmmaker stated that he did so to avoid having the younger cast members age-out, bringing up Netflix's Stranger Things as an example of the problem of time marching on. "Otherwise, you get-and I love Stranger Things-but you get the Stranger Things effect, where they're supposed to still be in high school [but] they look like they're 27," Cameron said.
He continued, "You know, I love the show. It's okay, we'll suspend disbelief. We like the characters. But, you know." Avatar: The Way of Water introduces Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, who was 7 years old when cast and is now 13) and Spider (Jack Champion, who was 12 when cast, but is now 18). Since Champion was "growing like a weed," the second, third, and first act of the fourth movie had to be done in one production, Cameron said. Avatar The Way of Water Movie Review: James Cameron's Sci-Fi Sequel Is a Spectacular Visual Treat That Revels in Deep World-Building! (LatestLY Exclusive).
The film stars Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement, and Kate Winslet. 20th Century Studios released the movie in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam on December 16, 2022. As per Deadline, behind the scenes, reports have claimed that the production budget alone for the film has reached USD 250 million. The script for Avatar: The Way of Water comes from Cameron and Josh Friedman.