James Cameron Wants To Prove 'Avatar' Wasn't A Fluke

Avatar came out six years ago. It doesn't feel like it's been that long, but that's how long it's been since director James Cameron's 3D fantasy film made almost $3 billion dollars. You can't really dismiss a movie that made that much money as a fluke, but some wonder if the movie just hit at the right time. Is Pandora a world people really want to return to? Are audiences aching to go on three more adventures with Jake Scully (Sam Worthington)? The people who ask those questions are whom Cameron wants to prove wrong in 2017.

After the jump, read the director's latest comments on the Avatar sequels.

Earlier this year Cameron said the writing process has been a part of the reason for the delay of Avatar 2, citing that plotting out three films is far more complicated than writing a standalone feature:

There's a layer of complexity in getting the story to work as a saga across three films that you don't get when you're making a stand-alone film. We're writing three simultaneously. And we've done that so that everything tracks throughout the three films. We're not just going to do one and then make up another one and another one after that. And parallel with that, we're doing all the design. So we've designed all the creatures and the environments.

Speaking with EW, the director says the Avatar sequels scripts, which he's developing with a team of writers, aren't quite finished:

"I'm in the process of doing another pass through all three scripts right now. Just refining. That's in parallel with the design process. The design process is very mature at this point. We've been designing for about a year and a half. All the characters, settings and creatures are all pretty much [set]."

Cameron went on to say he doesn't want to disappoint audiences, and that he doesn't want people to think Avatar was some "fluke." Cameron has proven himself time and time again to exceed expectations. More than a few people expected his fantasy epic and Titanic to bomb. By this point, it's safe to assume Cameron won't fail anytime soon, but eight years following the first Avatar, will audiences still be interested in Pandora? These sequels aren't exactly striking while the iron is hot, but you can't blame Cameron for taking his time to get these scripts right. Plus, Avatar made almost $3 billion dollars, so the idea of audiences having zero interest in these sequels is somewhat doubtful.

Avatar 2 opens in theaters December 25th, 2017.