In December, Jeff Sneider of “The Hot Mic” podcast claimed James Cameron had an extended cut of “Avatar 3” that would put the Snyder cut of “Justice League” to shame. Clocking in at 9 hours, a new rumor indicates this cut may end up as a limited Disney+ series.
“Months ago, I put out a rumor about James Cameron having a nine-hour cut of Avatar 3 that he wanted to finish the visual effects for,” Sneider said. “A lot of people were like, ‘Why would the studio pay for that? Why would he insist on doing visual effects if then he’s gonna cut the movie?’” Which are all perfectly valid questions for a claim like this. Studios don’t tend to put a whole lot of money into visual effects for scenes that have already hit the cutting room floor.
“The idea is that Cameron would do all the visual effects for his nine-hour cut of Avatar 3 and then release it on Disney+ as a limited series after the theatrical cut is released,” Sneider claims. While he did caution that plans “could change,” because you know, this is a just a rumor.
It does seem like a logical step to get even more mileage [read: money] from the “Avatar” franchise. If the content has already been shot, turning what would have been trashed footage into something useable makes sense. That is assuming Camron can keep the visual effects budget down. Or bring in strong enough ratings to justify the extra expense to polish all the cut scenes.
If any franchise could pull something like this off, it’s “Avatar.” As of last week, “Avatar: The Way of Water” has made nearly $2.3 billion worldwide. Which makes it the third-highest-grossing film of all time behind the original “Avatar” and “Avengers: Endgame.”
“Avatar 3,” not in nine-hour form, hits theaters on December 20th, 2024. “Avatar 4” and “Avatar 5” are slated for December 2026 and 2028, respectively. We’ll keep you posted on updates about the limited series if/when they develop.
