When James Cameron delivers his fifth and final planned Avatar movie, currently scheduled for 2031, the saga will have spanned an impressive 22 years. But even with three more full Avatar movies coming — including December’s Avatar: Fire and Ash — Cameron says he wants to explore the world of Pandora in new ways. That includes an animated anthology focusing on “stories that you wouldn’t have expected” from the world of Avatar.
Speaking to Empire, Cameron said he wants to do his version of The Animatrix, the animated spinoff of the Wachowskis’ Matrix film series. Cameron’s idea for an animated Avatar anthology would “add texture and baroque detail to the world of Avatar” and add “backstory on characters and tangential stuff that happened off-camera within the movies.”
“There might even be an animated feature in there – it might be a feature for streaming, or a theatrical feature,” Cameron told Empire. Whether it will be a full-on anime like The Animatrix or something akin to the computer-animated video game anthology Secret Level remains to be seen.
Cameron and crew have already expanded the world of Avatar beyond the two theatrical films released thus far (2009’s Avatar and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water). Cameron’s original scrapped screenplay for a direct Avatar sequel was adapted into graphic-novel form with Avatar: The High Ground in 2022, and Ubisoft released a side-story video game in 2023 with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
But it sounds like Cameron’s plans for spin-offs and side stories intend to go further. Avatar spin-offs have thus far focused primarily on the Na’vi, but some of Cameron’s ideas could focus on more human stories, including the first expedition to Pandora.
Your next trip to James Cameron’s alien world will disembark on Dec. 19, when Avatar: Fire and Ash arrives in movie theaters.