The first reactions to Avatar 3 have been revealed by director James Cameron.
Cameron has been hard at work on the next instalment of his long-running blockbuster franchise after the release of sequel The Way of Water in 2022.
The third film, titled Fire and Ash, might be 10 months away from release, but Cameron has screened it in its current state to “a few selected people”.
According to the director, “the feedback has been [that] it’s definitely the most emotional and maybe the best of the three so far”.
This response would have been a relief to Cameron, who has set almost impossible standards for the success of the third film.
He had previously expressed concern shortly before The Way of Water was released over the 12-year gap between the first film. Yet he needn’t have worried, as The Way of Water became the third highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing another of his biggest films, Titanic.
The top two films are Avengers: Endgame, in second place, and the first Avatar film, which is the most successful movie of all time.
All eyes will be on Fire and Ash’s box office numbers when it’s finally released on 19 December.
Cameron previously revealed what fans could expect from the new sequel, explaining that it will explore “different cultures from those I have already shown”.
In the first and second parts of the franchise, viewers were introduced to two different Na’vi clans, the Omaticaya and the Metkayina.
In both Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, the Omaticaya and the Metkayina clans are peaceful tribes and only retaliate when their land is threatened by humans.
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However, Cameron has revealed that the next film will see the fiery side of these tribes, which “will be represented by the ‘Ash people’.
He told France’s 20 Minutes: “I want to show the Na’vi from another angle because, so far, I have only shown their good sides.”
“In the early films, there are very negative human examples and very positive Na’vi examples.“ In Avatar 3, we will do the opposite. We will also explore new worlds, while continuing the story of the main characters.
“I can say that the last parts will be the best. The others were an introduction, a way to set the table before serving the meal.”
There will be two more Avatar films after Fire and Ash, and they will be released in December 2029 and December 2031, respectively.
