James Cameron Says Next ‘Avatar’ Film Will Be The Longest One Yet; Last One Moved “Like A Bullet Train” Instead Of Taking Time For Character Development

deadline.com:

Filmmaker James Cameron, whose third Avatar installment is due out in December, says the film will be the longest in the franchise so far in terms of running time.

Cameron, who also made the three-hour-plus Titanic, has never been accused of going short in recent years. His previous Avatar film, 2022’s The Way of Water, clocked in at 3 hours 12 minutes.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is slated to be released by Disney on December 19. Cameron shared his outlook for it in an interview with UK-based film outlet Empire. “In a nutshell, we had too many great ideas packed into act one of Movie 2,” Cameron said.

The Way of Water, in retrospect, “was moving like a bullet train, and we weren’t drilling down enough on character. So I said, ‘Guys, we’ve got to split it.’ […] Movie 3 will actually be a little bit longer than Movie 2.” The first Avatar film in 2009 had a running time of 2 hours 42 minutes.