How 'Stranger Things' Inspired James Cameron's Decision to Shoot 3 'Avatar' Movies Back-to-Back

James Cameron has Stranger Things to thank for his decision to shoot almost three Avatar movies back-to-back.

Avatar: The Way of Water, the long-awaited follow-up to the best-selling original movie, premiered earlier this month. Two more movies are already in the works, with one of them completely filmed.

James explained why he wanted to get as much content as possible filmed during a recent interview, and it has to do with the crop of young actors that were introduced in the second movie.

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The director introduced several young characters in the second movie, played by actors including Trinity Jo-Li Bliss and Jack Champion. Filming the content rapidly helped ensure that the stars didn’t grow up too much between movies.

“I love Stranger Things, but you get the Stranger Things effect where they’re supposed to still be in high school, and they look like they’re 27,” he told Entertainment Weekly about his decision.

He added that Jack was “growing like a weed” after joining the cast at the age of 12. He’s now 18. Trinity was cast at 7 and is now 13.

“We shot with Jack when he was 14 and 15, almost up to 16. So we were shooting him over an 18-month period,” James said. He also described a time during the pandemic where he thought his plans would fall through.

“I was imagining scenarios where we don’t go back to work for a year and a half, and we’re completely screwed because he’s aged out, and then we have to go back and reshoot with another guy,” he recalled. “It was like, ‘Just hand me the shotgun.’ But fortunately, it didn’t work out that way. We were able to appeal to the New Zealand government to let in a small group of our key [actors] so that we could bring the production back.”

Does the director foresee similar problems in the future? He assured the publication that there was more freedom with future movies due to a time jump that occurs somewhere in the fourth movie.

He already has all the content that he’ll need to reach that point by the sounds of it.

Lean more about Jack here and see how he responded to questions about his character’s mother.

Speaking about the future of Avatar, see when the third, fourth and fifth movies are projected to be released.