Animated Avatar anthology may be next for the expanding franchise, hints James Cameron

Avatar is a franchise that James Cameron has been developing for several years. After the success of the 2009 film, the director worked on its multiple sequels. The film was finally released in 2022. Now, the director is preparing for the third installment, titled Avatar: Fire and Ash, set to premiere on December 19, 2025.

Besides this, Cameron has also hinted that they might be working on expanding the franchise further through an animated anthology.

Let’s see what exactly the Titanic director has said about the future of this franchise.

James Cameron hints at expanding the Avatar franchise

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Ahead of the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash, director James Cameron discussed plans to expand this franchise further. He mentioned developing an animated anthology within the same universe. In an interview with Empire magazine, the Oscar-winning director talked about pitching an idea to the studio.

“I said, ‘Look, I want to do an animated anthology series that’s essentially in the world, but stories that you wouldn’t have expected from that world. There might even be an animated feature in there — it might be a feature for streaming, or a theatrical feature.”

Cameron mentioned the Matrix franchise as a similar example.

“A good early example is The Animatrix, where they went afield in the Matrix world. These are all great examples for how we can add texture and baroque detail to the world of Avatar.” [These films could provide] backstory on characters and tangential stuff that happened off-camera within the movies. Who first landed on Pandora? The first expedition. You could go anywhere you want.”

But the filmmaker said he is still in the initial stage of this project and is collecting stories.

“We haven’t done much with that yet. We’re still gathering our stories and that sort of thing, and I’ve got to find the boutique filmmakers, the animators, that want to do it.”

Meanwhile, Avatar: Fire and Ash is the third installment in the franchise. Directed by James Cameron, the film is produced by him, the late Jon Landau, and Rae Sanchini. Cameron, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver wrote the screenplay, while the story is also by them, along with Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno.

The film centers on Jake and Neytiri encountering an aggressive tribe of the N'avi. Both Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana are reprising their roles as the protagonists.