Avatar 2 May Go Off Pandora, And Other Sequel Tidbits

Given Avatar's strong showing at the box office for the past few weekends, and that James Cameron and Fox have invested considerable amounts of blood and money in the film, you can rest assured that we're going to get a sequel (and most likely a third film to complete the trilogy). The only question now is what those sequels will be about.

According to a recent LA Times Hero Complex interview, which occurred on Avatar's opening night, Cameron is considering exploring the other moons surrounding the gas-giant planet Polyphemus, which Pandora orbits. This confirms an earlier rumor by Market Saw, and it gives us an idea about the increased scope of the Avatar universe.

Cameron's quote, as well as a few other sequel bits, after the break. And of course, spoilers for the ending of Avatar as well.

In reference to the other moons around Polyphemus, Cameron said:

We have some story ideas about how to branch out into other moons of Polyphemus and the Alpha Centauri A (ACA) solar system.

This means we'll be seeing further human exploration into that solar system, or perhaps even the newly Na'vi born Jake heading back into space with Neytiri in tow. I also would love to get a good luck at the destroyed Earth they keep referring to in the film.

Cameron also recently told ComingSoon how much Avatar was thought of as a possible franchise from the beginning:

Actually, when I pitched this to 20th Century Fox four-and-a-half years ago, I said, 'You know, we're going to spend a lot of money and time and energy creating not only a process but the assets, the CG assets, we call them – all the models of every rock and tree and plant and creature and the muscle rigs for all the creatures and the facial rigging for the main characters and all that'... huge, millions and millions of dollars. So it really makes sense to think of it as the potential start of a franchise, if you will, or a saga that plays out over several acts, each movie being an act of that saga.

He goes on to say that he's mapped out what will happen in the sequels, although he hasn't written any scripts yet.

In regards to actually producing the sequels, Cameron told MTV that he can definitely get them out faster than the first film:

Part of what we set out to do is create a world and create these characters. From the time we capture and finish the capture, it's literally nine to 10 months to get the CG characters working, to get their facial musculature working. ... So now we have Jake, we have Neytiri. Sam can step right back into it, the characters will fit them like a glove, and we'll just go on. So a lot of the start-up torque that had to be done for one movie really makes more sense if you play it out across several films.

This is all assuming Cameron doesn't want to make some grand changes to the underlying technology before the next films. Even considering something like that though, they'll still be much better off production-wise the next time around.

We also recently ran some comments from producer Jon Landau on the sequel, in which he said, "After all, here we are exploring the surface of the planet Pandora. The interior remains to be seen."

So not only are the moons a possibility, but also a further exploration into Pandora's ecosystem. This honestly seems like the most obvious approach for the sequels, and I'm sure Cameron is dying to show us his meticulously constructed underwater Pandora environment.

Discuss: What would you like to see in an Avatar sequel? Should they spend more time off world, or give us more Pandora?