There are a number of coveted jobs in Hollywood today, but few are as desired as helming a Marvel or ‘Star Wars’ movie. You would think that both young up and coming filmmakers and established veterans have a desire to work in these universes due to their widespread appeal, dedicated fan bases, and various personal feelings for the characters. However, of sci-fi’s biggest players has revealed that he has no such ambitions of mixing it up with the Avengers or the Rebel Alliance.

In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, James Cameron revealed that he doesn’t want to direct any films in a galaxy far, far away or in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Instead, he’d much rather focus on his own creations:

“I’m not the slightest bit interested in laboring in someone else’s house… My focus is on Avatar 2, 3, 4, and 5 equally.”

One could understand why Cameron would choose not to team up with the House of Ideas again since he wasn’t credited with writing ‘Spider-Man’ starring Tobey Maguire back in the early 2000s despite how much of his treatment work ended up in the final version of the film, but it’s interesting that Cameron would still limit himself like that. For starters, they’re under new management these days. Then, while it’s understandable that he would rather create worlds of his own, the filmmaker has tackled his fair share of pre-existing IP in the past. Early on in his career, he had writing and directing duties on ‘Rambo: First Blood Part II’ and ‘Aliens’ before adding ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ in the mid-2000s.

But on the other hand, would we really want him working on a Marvel or a ‘Star Wars’ movie? These days, it seems like Cameron spends years and years working on his projects, which isn’t conducive to either franchise that has at least one new installment coming out every year. In fact, many would argue that Cameron’s pace is detrimental to the relevance of his new work. I mean, no one was really clamoring for more ‘Avatar’ in 2009. Even if they were, there certainly wasn’t enough interest to warrant four more sequels.

But if Pandora is really where he wants to spend his time, who are we to take him away from that? After all, if those movies tank, he’s only really hurting his own reputation and whoever funded them rather than the legions of fans or the iconic characters that live in those worlds. Let’s just leave him alone in his own sandbox instead of causing trouble everywhere else. It’s worked for former actor/comedian and current ‘The Tonight Show’ host Jimmy Fallon (who is a strong contender for the title of “The Worst” as he managed to be the only thing that has knocked ‘Hamilton’ down a few notches thanks to his contribution to the ‘Hamilton Mixtape’), so why wouldn’t it work for James Cameron too?

Would you like to see James Cameron direct a Marvel movie or a ‘Star Wars’ movie? Or are you glad that he’s choosing to stay away? Sound off in the comments. 

horizontal lineDespite being a “professional writer”, Ben likes run-on sentences far too much. For more of his attempts at being funny and the occasional insightful thought, follow him on Twitter and Instagram