James Cameron says he might have to train someone to direct future Avatar films if he gets too old

James Cameron has teased he might need to recruit a younger protege to take over the Avatar franchise if he gets too old.

The legendary director is 68 at the moment and he says he has a massive vision for the movie saga.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron revealed he's already started planning for Avatar 6 and Avatar 7, even though the second one hasn't even been released yet.

It's been more than a decade since the original film was released, so who knows if people will still be invested in the story once we get half a dozen more movies.

While 68 isn't that old, Cameron admits directing a film as big as Avatar means he might not be able to take on the workload by the time he gets to Avatar 7.

"I’d be 89 by then," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "Obviously, I’m not going to be able to make Avatar movies indefinitely, the amount of energy required.

“I would have to train somebody how to do this because, I don’t care how smart you are as a director, you don’t know how to do this.”

He's already outlined how the rest of his career is going to look, saying he probably has 'five or six more movies' in him.

Cameron admitted that three of those would be Avatar films.

While The Way of Water sequel is set to drop this month, it looks like Cameron hasn't sat back and waited to see if people are still into the franchise.

He says he's already shot Avatar 3, which will come out in 2024, and bits of the fourth film, set for 2026.

20th Century Studios.

Oh, and he already has a script for film number five, which is expected to drop in 2028.

"It’s all written out, stem to stern, four scripts, and fully designed," Cameron revealed.

"We know exactly where we’re going, if we get the opportunity to do it. And that opportunity will simply be market-driven, if people want it, if they like this movie enough."

But he's waiting to see how much appetite there is for Avatar 2 before he'll push on with his plans.

There's no denying there will be plenty of people raring to go and see the highly-anticipated sequel.

But Cameron has admitted the movie will need to get around $2 billion at the box office for them to even break even.

Considering only five movies in history have done that, that's a tall order.