With the long-awaited Avatar: The Way of Water now finally showing in theaters everywhere after 13 years in James Cameron's tedious 3D production process, it may come as a surprise to many that the next sequel in the franchise is not nearly as far away. According to a report from Collider, Avatar's leading producer Jon Landau has said that production on Avatar 3 (tentative name) is already 95% complete. Not only that, but the first act of Avatar 4 has already been filmed, and the recurring cast has read their scripts all the way up through Avatar 5 now.

Landau had this to say about how the series is moving along:

“What we've done is, first of all, we've completed all four scripts for 2, 3, 4, and 5. [The cast] read them. They know where their characters go. They know. It informs how they play these scenes. We went out and we shot all of movie 2. We shot 95% of movie 3. We have a little bit that we have to still pick up. And we shot the first act of movie 4. [...] I think one of the great things that we've done, and Jim has done in these scripts, is each movie is going to take you to new biomes and new cultures.

Related: Sam Worthington Opens Up On Avatar: The Way of Water: 'It's Mind-Blowing'

The Exceptional Challenge of Avatar's Success

Avatar: the Way of Water (2022)
20th Century Studios

This bombshell of information helps shed light on how Cameron's creative and technological process on his most ambitious film series ever has adapted with time and now become significantly more efficient. Landau specifies that audiences definitely won't have to worry about waiting several years in between installments, that the major hurdle in improving the technology specifically built for the Avatar movies has now been surpassed. Cameron and his crew can now wholly commit to their pledge of a new Avatar film every two years. That is also in large part because the scripts for every single film planned in the franchise are already finished, so with the bones of each project already built, the process will move even more efficiently.

Avatar 3 in its uncut entirety is apparently a whopping 9 hours and 14 minutes long, with Cameron requesting VFX for that full run time. As many know by now, Cameron is not one to shy away from creating a film that stretches beyond the normal expectations many other directors and production companies abide by. Rather, he sooner advises theatergoers to plan bathroom trips accordingly during a viewing and not disparage a film's integrity based solely on its run time.

Avatar 2 so far has performed well at the box office, though just underneath the hopeful projections. Granted, with the astronomical production budget of these films, breaking even literally means grossing at least one billion dollars worldwide per film. Nevertheless, Cameron remains confident that repeating the record broken by the first Avatar film will be consistently achievable, and that audiences will continue to flock for the exceptionally vibrant storytelling.