Avatar: Fire And Ash Director James Cameron Has An Unusual Idea For An Extended Edition [Exclusive]

Most film fans of a certain age and younger have grown up with an abundance of riches when it comes to watching cinema. Not only have we enjoyed the ability to watch nearly any movie we want to on demand, but we also have the option to dive deeper into our favorite films and filmmakers. This ability, which began with the laserdisc and continued into the DVD and now the Blu-Ray, also gave filmmakers greater opportunities to present their films. Where once the theatrical release of a movie was the rigid endpoint of a film's lifespan, physical media afforded the opportunity for directors to release alternative versions of their movies. Thus, the relationship between new home viewing technologies and cinema is a symbiotic one.

No one understands this better than James Cameron. The innovative filmmaker has been making use of home media's ability to offer alternative and extended cuts of films since the early 1990s, when he prepared new versions of "Aliens," "The Abyss," and "Terminator 2." It's entirely possible that "The Abyss" might not be regarded as the sci-fi classic that it is today without Cameron being allowed to finish and release his preferred Special Edition cut of the movie. Thus far, the filmmaker has been unimpeded in the runtimes of his "Avatar" trilogy, with this month's "Avatar: Fire and Ash" coming in at 197 minutes long. Yet that doesn't mean there isn't more material from the films left on the cutting room floor. 

During a recent interview with Cameron, I asked him if any extended editions of "The Way of Water" and "Fire and Ash" might be headed our way, and the director not only confirmed that they may indeed happen, but that they might be offered in a highly unusual and tech-forward medium.

If you've seen any "Avatar" movie, you'll know just how much imagination, design, thought, and character work goes into these already massive films. As such, it's no surprise that every "Avatar" movie to date has ended up with a surplus of footage. Fortunately, we've already been granted not one, but two extended editions of the first "Avatar," and while these cuts were sequestered on a special edition Blu-Ray release for many years, the 4K Collector's Edition release remastered these cuts in glorious High Dynamic Range. While a 4K Collector's Edition of "The Way of Water" was also released, there is only one cut of that film available to date. Unlike the first "Avatar," which was loaded with scenes that weren't strictly necessary yet greatly enhanced the film, Cameron doesn't believe the theatrical cuts of either "Avatar" sequel are lacking. Still, when I asked about the possibility of extended cuts, he admitted that they're in the works:

"We're just starting that conversation now, so you can appreciate — we spent a lot of time on the capture and imagining these scenes. We don't take things out because it's not as good, we take things out because in the grand scheme, it doesn't orchestrate into the full effect that we want. But the scenes themselves are usually pretty good. So we're talking about how we might be able to make that accessible to people."

It sounds from this comment that we're not missing out on any huge missing or alternative plotlines that would change the movies wholesale, a la prior Cameron special editions. Yet if Cameron's calling these scenes "pretty good," then they've got to be worth seeing.

Cameron appears passionate about the prospect of continuing and expanding the "Avatar" experience. One thing he made sure to mention is that simply including the films' deleted material in a special features section of a home release is not what he's looking to do again, and is instead interested in including them in full-length cuts:

"Historically, we've just kind of chucked them all in a bin and said, 'All right, here are the scenes that were cut out, you fill it in your brain,' which is less than satisfying."

Most intriguingly, the director explained how future extended cuts might appear on a wholly unexpected platform, something which isn't even available at the time of this writing:

"I'd love to do it in 3D, over, let's say, the new generation of Meta headsets that's coming out next year, which could be pretty cool. We've got to continuously evolve the experience and the platform and the way people can access that stuff."

It does feel very appropriate for both "Avatar" and Cameron to take advantage of new personal technology like these Meta headsets in pushing the experience of the films forward. Yet for those of us wary of having to adopt a whole new bit of tech to see more "Avatar," Cameron also admitted that the old-fashioned method is still a viable one, too: "We could do a long cut of the movie and rerelease it in a few years; there are so many different ways to do it."

Indeed, the possibilities are very exciting, both for what extra material we might get to see and in what way. Hopefully, unlike the fourth and fifth "Avatar" films, we won't have long to wait.

"Avatar: Fire and Ash" is in theaters on December 19, 2025.