Avatar: The Way of Water: James Cameron explains why it took over a decade to finally make the sequel

We’re zeroing in on the release of James Cameron’s obsessive technological revolution with Avatar: The Way of Water. The original was a colossal money maker and ushered in a new era of 3D movies as the advances in techniques made the film appear photo real. However, this was also 13 years ago, and the trend had since died down. It was to the point that it was questioned whether people still desired to watch 3D movies.

CBR reports on why it took James Cameron so long to finally follow up with a sequel to 2009’s Avatar,

First of all, I was doing deep ocean expeditions for a few years. Then when we got serious about doing [the] Avatar [sequels], we wrote four scripts — that took a couple of years. Then we had to design the movies. So what we’re trying to do is kind of front-load the whole process, so that we can drop them into the marketplace a couple of years apart — two or three years apart — so once we’re back, we’re back to stay, right? So you can revisit the world and the characters at a regular kind of cadence, right? That’s how the game is played, if you’re creating a persistent world, people want it again and they want it again. So, that’s our game plan.”

The promotion circuit for Cameron has been an interesting one. He’s been asked questions on the relevance of this film as audiences were seemingly fulfilled with the first one as it showcased a satisfying enough conclusion and the lack of fandom that other giant franchises display. Cameron has been defensive about his vision of seven total movies in the series, where it seems the material doesn’t seem to vary as much as other film universes.

However, the first reactions to the film are already generating a pretty positive buzz. So, it remains to be seen as the public will vote with their wallets.

Avatar: The Way of Water is slated to make a splash on screens on December 16.