Is there any chance James Cameron won't be back for Avatar 4 and 5? Only if he gets 'hit by a bus' and ends up in 'an iron lung'

Don't worry, James Cameron lovers, the director is still planning on helming the fourth and fifth Avatar films, and there's not much anyone can do to stop him.

After more than a decade of waiting, Avatar: The Way of Water finally came out, and it made the reality of a third, fourth, and fifth film actually possible, rather than just years of "yeah, they're definitely going to happen." Over the weekend, Avatar 3 also finally got a subtitle, Fire and Ash, and we know Cameron has directed that one as he filmed it simultaneously with the second film. Fire and Ash is currently due out next year, December 19 2025, but Cameron does also have plans for two more films after that one. The director had previously said that he thinks he'll pass the directing baton on to someone else, unsure as to whether that'll be after the third or fourth film, but in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron made it clear that he has every intention to direct at least up until the fifth film.

After being asked if he planned to direct Avatar 4 and 5, Cameron said, "Sure. Absolutely. I mean, they’re going to have to stop me. I got plenty of energy, love doing what I’m doing. Why would I not? And they’re written, by the way. I just reread both of them about a month ago. They’re cracking stories. They’ve got to get made. Look, if I get hit by a bus and I’m in an iron lung, somebody else is going to do it." The interviewer, understandably, noted they hope that won't happen, with Cameron joking that he tries "to avoid that kind of scenario."

Cameron has also previously said that he has plans for a hypothetical Avatar 6 and 7, though he did say that for those titles it's likely someone else will direct them.

In the same interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron also shared that he's working on something new within the Terminator universe, but when pressed for more he said "It’s totally classified. I don’t want to have to send out a potentially dangerous robotic agent if you were to talk about it, even retroactively."