James Cameron hints his last act won’t be spent on Avatar

Honored in Canada with the Governor General’s Prize, James Cameron said he’s starting to plan what he calls the “last act” of his career — and that means thinking beyond Pandora. He’s weighing which ideas deserve him in the director ’s chair and which ones he might shepherd as a writer or producer instead.

“This is the point where I look at the landscape and ask, ‘What are the other stories I want to tell?”

Cameron said while receiving Canada’s Governor General’s Prize.

That self-assessment lands as questions swirl around how much more time he’ll personally devote to Avatar . He’s acknowledged how massive, expensive and time-consuming the films have become, even as the franchise keeps delivering at the box office.

What could be next

Projects Cameron has recently name-checked as possibilities include:

• Ghosts of Hiroshima
• Alita 2
• The Devils
• Fantastic Voyage
• Another Terminator film

Avatar’s perch at the top

The original Avatar remains the all-time worldwide box office leader with roughly $2.93 billion. Its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water , added another $2.3 billion, ranking among the top-grossing movies ever. The third film continued that momentum, pushing the franchise’s cumulative worldwide total past $6 billion.

Each installment has also advanced the technology behind the spectacle, from modern performance capture and large-format 3D to underwater motion-capture techniques that became central to the sequel’s ocean-set sequences.

Cameron hasn’t announced which project he’ll tackle next. For now, Disney still has Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 on the calendar for 2029 and 2031.