James Cameron Avatar

It has been a decade since James Cameron brought us to Pandora with his film ‘Avatar.’ But now we know that Cameron‘s sci-fi epic is far from over as sequels are set to begin hitting theaters next year.

Cameron recently appeared on the Empire podcast, where he spoke about the sequels, from the “dark places” characters will go to in ‘Avatar 2’ to the “emotional rollercoaster” of the franchise as a whole.

Speaking about ‘Avatar 2,’ Cameron revealed that the film’s star Sam Worthington had to go to some dark places with his character, Jake Sully. Cameron explains that Jake’s marriage to Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) will be pushed to a breaking point, and their struggles will be shown through the eyes of their children.

Cameron said:

“There’s a three-page argument scene between Jake and Neytiri, a marital dispute, very, very critical to the storyline. I wound up shooting it all from the point of view of the eight year old hiding under the structure and peeking in.”

Cameron explained that everything the characters will go through fits into the overall emotional arc of the franchise, saying:

“Having gone through the experience with [Sam Worthington] on ‘Avatar,’ I now knew how to write the Jake character going forward across the emotional rollercoaster of the next four movies. It’s been tough on him. He’s done two pictures back to back now, because we did 2 and 3 together. He had to go to some dark places.”

‘Avatar 2’ stars Worthington, Saldana, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, and more. The sequel is set to open in theaters on December 18, 2020. ‘Avatar 3’ is set to follow on December 17, 2021, with ‘Avatar 4’ on December 20, 2024, and ‘Avatar 5’ on December 19, 2025.