Aquaman director James Wan wants to play in the Avatar sandbox.
Wan, who also directed horror hits like Insidious, The Conjuring and Malignant, revealed in a new interview with Screen Rant that he would be happy to work on James Cameron’s Avatar franchise if the director steps down after Avatar: Fire and Ash.
“I didn’t do Avatar,” Wan said. “Yeah, if you could make me a good one with James Cameron, I’d love to try.”
However, even though Cameron has indicated that he would be willing to step away from Avatar in the future, it appears that he will still want to be closely involved.
When asked by Matt Belloni if he would hand the franchise over to someone else, Cameron replied, “Absolutely not,” noting that he would still at least be on board as a producer: “I don’t think there will ever be a version where there is another Avatar movie that I didn’t produce closely. But as far as my life goes, you know, that’s a threshold issue for me.”
Cameron also indicated that he would be willing to walk away from the franchise if Fire and Ash didn’t make enough money. “Absolutely,” Cameron said. “I’ve been in Avatar land for 20 years. Actually, 30 years, because I wrote it in 1995, right, but I didn’t work on it continuously for those first 10 years. There was a brief burst of interest in 1995, and then everyone said, ‘You’re crazy,’ and I put it aside for 10 years, and then we got serious in 2005. Yeah, absolutely. Of course, if that’s where it ends, cool.”
But Avatar: Fire and Ash recently crossed the $1 billion mark at the box office, so there appears to be no risk of financial failure for the franchise. Avatar 4 is currently scheduled for release on December 21, 2029.
Fire and Ash is in theaters now. For more, check out our Avatar: Fire and Ash review or our Avatar: Fire and Ash ending explained.
