James Cameron Wants to Expand the World of AVATAR with an Animated Anthology Project
The world of Avatar might be expanding once again but this time in animated form. James Cameron, the mastermind behind Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, is eyeing a whole new medium to explore Pandora’s rich mythology.
While some fans are counting down the days until Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters this December, Cameron is already planting seeds for a potential animated anthology series that could dive deeper into the untold stories of his sci-fi universe.
Speaking with Empire Magazine, Cameron revealed he’s been talking with Disney about launching an Avatar animated project. He shared his vision saying:
“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.
“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.”
What Cameron’s talking about sounds incredibly cool. He’s not just thinking about rehashing the same characters or events. He wants to go wide with it. Deep cuts. Backstories. Side quests. The kind of lore expansions that fans eat up.
“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.”
Of course, this idea is still in early development and hasn’t moved past the brainstorming phase.
“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.”
So while there’s no official greenlight yet, just knowing Cameron is serious about bringing more Avatar stories to life in animation is pretty cool an interesting. The franchise has already proven it has the depth and scale to support spin-offs and side stories, and animation could be the perfect playground for creative experimentation in the Avatar universe.
In the meantime, fans can gear up for Avatar: Fire and Ash, which premieres in theaters on December 19, 2025. The film sees Sam Worthington return as Jake Sully, alongside Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, Edi Falco, and more.