The Most Epic Fantasy and Sci-Fi Website

Avatar 2 Producer Compares Movie To Top Gun Maverick And Star Wars Saga


James Cameron has dedicated his years into creating a great sequel for his initial Avatar movie. With Avatar: The Way of Water on its way to make its biggest splash, the creator also previously teased for plans of part 4 and 5 in the franchise. The Avatar 2 producer Jon Landau recently shared that the Avatar story is comparable to Top Gun: Maverick rather than the Star Wars saga.

Speaking with SFX Magazine, via Total Film, Landau explains how Cameron initially had a thousand-page script of notes planned for the Avatar sequel, which, unfortunately, couldn’t be distributed in merely three movies, opening up the possibility of having four movies. Read Landau’s explanation below:

“[Early on], Jim (James Cameron) had identified that he wanted to make three movies, and felt that he had a plethora of directions to go in those. Then when he started working with teams of writers to take his 1000-plus pages of notes and coalesce them into stories, he realized we couldn’t get it down to three movies, that there were really four unique stories to tell.”

READ MORE: Avatar 2: Jake Sully Actor Claims Sequel Blows First Movie Away

click to enlarge
+ 2

While a four-part story franchise is no strange quest to movie franchises nowadays, it is important to note that Landau compared the potential four-part Avatar movie Top Gun rather than the Star Wars saga.

“I guess a really good analogy to think about is, ‘Did you need to have seen Top Gun to enjoy Top Gun: Maverick?’ If you really look at those two stories together, Maverick has gone on an arc across both movies, and this is that same type of thing. We’re just doing it over four films.”

click to enlarge
+ 2

James Cameron had made it clear of not wanting to tarnish his vision for the Avatar sequels, so much so that he had kicked out his executive who suggested making the film shorter. With James Cameron investing his time and ‘a whole load of money’ into the sequel, he holds high hopes of Avatar: The Way of Water breaking a record in the box office, and based on what Sam Worthington (Jake Sully) says about its first look, it seems Cameron’s dream is not out of his reach, after all.

Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters on December 16, 2022.

ALSO READ: Avatar: The Way of Water Featurette Invites Everyone To Experience Pandora Once More

For more articles like this, take a look at our Star Wars, Avatar, and Geek Culture pages.