James Cameron says he already has plans for Avatar 6 and 7

James Cameron's Avatar films are coming in thick and fast.

The long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, hasn't even landed in cinemas yet, but that hasn't stopped the legendary director from planning all the way up to the seventh film in the projected franchise.

Cameron sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to chat about his wide-ranging plans for the series.

'Wide-ranging' is putting it lightly.

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

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."

20th Century Fox

Cameron, who hasn't released a film since the first Avatar back in 2009, has gone to a tremendous amount of work considering audiences are currently untested for the follow-up movie, out in December.

So has Cameron left it too long?

He said: "When you have extraordinary success, you come back within the next three years. That’s just how the industry works. You come back to the well, and you build that cultural impact over time."

He added: "Marvel had maybe 26 movies to build out a universe, with the characters cross-pollinating. So it’s an irrelevant argument. We’ll see what happens after this film."

So it's a watch-and-wait sort of deal at the moment.

That being said, the 2009 release of Avatar was a veritable inferno at the box office.

20th Century Studios.

It raked in well over USD$2,789 billion (AUD$4.110 billion, £2.313 billion) until Marvel took the crown with its 2019 release with Avengers: Endgame.

But after a recent reissue in China, Avatar took in a further USD$8.9 million (AUD$13.1 million) and reclaimed its position as the most successful film of all time.

To make any money off of the sequel though, Cameron has to come close to beating his own record.

"We have to, literally, be in the top five grossing films in history to succeed," Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter.

Only five movies in history have ever managed to rake in over USD$2 billion (AUD$3.02 billion, £1.6 billion) mark worldwide.

While he's got a task ahead of him, Cameron's lofty goal is achievable considering his films Avatar and Titanic are in slot one and three, respectively.

Avatar: The Way of Water opens in theatres December 16.