Entertainment Weekly is devoting its newest cover story to Avatar, and what appears to be a slew of old news about a likely Avatar sequel. Just as James Cameron told Techland last month, he told EW that he’s already come up with ideas for not one but at least two sequels. Quoting Cameron’s sequel thoughts from our previous Techland story:
By now, the man must be exhausted, right? Wrong. Before I knew it, Cameron was even talking sequels: “Hell yeah, I’d be interested. You can speculate about budgets here and how much it will take to turn a profit, but the truth will be told if there’s no talk of a sequel. Then you’ll know we didn’t make money. But yeah, there’s two, possibly even three films…read more
Now I haven’t yet had a chance to read the full EW piece, but in this teaser blurb posted over at the magazine’s web site, the one new tidbit seems to be Cameron’s mention of some omittable scenes that were left in Avatar only because they help set up a sequel. That’s a curious revelation, and it left me thinking back to the film, and what superfluous scenes may play a role in Avatar 2.
Perhaps some of those shots of the other Na’vi clans spread out around Pandora? Or perhaps those sequences that show the sacred tree transferring one soul from a human body to a Na’vi body? Could that process work in reverse? (Read Techland’s Avatar review)
Most of the sequel talk I’ve heard has consisted of Cameron exploring the other moons surrounding this giant gas planet. Pandora is one moon, but there are several others he could explore. Here’s my big question: Would he introduce us then to a whole new set of characters? Or would some of the Na’vi on Pandora find their way to other moons? And how would they do that? They are a bow and arrow society, not a civilization that can make interstellar trips around their solar system.
In any case, Cameron has clearly approved this cover story, which means he wants the Avatar 2 speculation to begin in full. What would you want to see from a second trip to Pandora (or another moon)? Where do you think Cameron will take all this? Whatever he’s thinking now, given the fact that Avatar is well on its is trajectory to becoming the most lucrative film ever made, Avatar 2 seems less likely now than certain.
More at Techland: Check out our complete Avatar coverage