James Cameron Eyes “Avatar” Animated Universe

July 29, 2025 Roger Palmer

This week, Disney has released the first teaser trailer for the upcoming 20th Century Studios film, “Avatar: Fire And Ash”, which takes audiences back to Pandora in an immersive new adventure with Marine turned Na’vi leader Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Na’vi warrior Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and the Sully family.

To tie in with the release of the new teaser trailer for the third instalment in the massive “Avatar” franchise, the film’s director and creator, James Cameron recently spoke with Empire to promote “Avatar: Fire And Ash”, where he revealed that he has talked to Disney about telling more “Avatar” stories through animation.

“I said, ‘Look, I want to do an animated anthology series that’s essentially in the world, but stories that you wouldn’t have expected from that world’. There might even be an animated feature in there – it might be a feature for streaming, or a theatrical feature.”

James went on to explain how animation can expand on established franchises, especially using an anthology style, where they stand alone as their own solo stories.

“A good early example is The Animatrix, where they went afield in the Matrix world. These are all great examples for how we can add texture and baroque detail to the world of Avatar. The animated stories could deliver “backstory on characters and tangential stuff that happened off-camera within the movies. Who first landed on Pandora? The first expedition. You could go anywhere you want.”

He was also keen to state that this idea is still in the early stages and could be a while off, as he still has to finish making “Fire & Ash”, plus the two other sequels, due to hit cinemas in 2029 and 2031.

We haven’t done much with that yet. We’re still gathering our stories and that sort of thing and I’ve got to find the boutique filmmakers, the animators, that want to do it.” Still, the seed has been planted – here’s hoping it flourishes like a glowing piece of Pandoran flora.

James has already looked at ways of expanding the “Avatar” franchise, including releasing a major video game, “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora”, and interactive experiences at the Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World.

Building out the franchise in animated format would be one way to continue the adventures past the initial five-movie plan, though many might argue that the films are almost animated films anyway, due to the sheer number of shots made using CGI. Creating an animated series or film that matches the quality of movies is an expensive endeavour, but as technology advances, it may become more affordable. Or alternatively, Disney could decide to change the art style completely, giving them much more freedom and reducing comparisons to the movies.

Disney does love to expand out its franchises with as many projects as possible and has used animation projects for many big IPs like Star Wars, Marvel, Predator and others. So perhaps animated movies or shows could be a way to expand the world of “Avatar” past the release of the fifth movie, as Disney might be opposed to bringing out more “Avatar” content between the movies, after the failed experiment with Star Wars and Marvel of overcreating new content for Disney+, almost destroyed those franchises.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if Disney decided to make an animated film, instead of a series, since the last two movies are some of the biggest box office hits of all time, and there could be plenty of people interested in exploring the world of Pandora in further adventures.