You might want to slow down there a bit, Jim. It’s enough that Avatar 2 probably won’t hit for almost four years; there’s also a second sequel that, realistically, would come a year after that. Where does that potentially give him room? 2016, at the earliest? And with Battle Angel more or less being relegated to the bottom of the proverbial pile by Cameron himself, there must be room for one more narrative: Avatar 4.

No, really. In an interview with The New York Times (via ThePlaylist), the director revealed that his narrative development side has basically shut down, putting it rather bluntly by saying “I’m not interested in developing anything. I’m in the ‘Avatar‘ business. Period. That’s it.” I don’t know if you can get any clearer, though he did, again, add that a fourth Avatar is a “maybe” for him. Not that its existence is even a big question; this seems to be the only thing he’ll focus on for, quite possibly, the rest of his career.

Here’s how he put it:

“I can say everything I need to say that I think needs to be said, in terms of the state of the world and what I think we need to be doing about it. And doing it in an entertaining way. And anything I can’t say in that area, I want to say through documentaries, which I’m continuing.”

So we don’t know if Avatar 4 is actually coming out, but we probably don’t want to mark our calendars for anything else, either. A disappointment for many, but I will say this: If he has a better script on the subsequent sequels than he did the first (enjoyable) time around, I might not be completely averse to years and years of exploring Pandora, its oceans, and whatever else Cameron has up his rich sleeves. He’s done enough to earn some basic trust, frankly.

How do you feel about Cameron sticking with Avatar for the foreseeable (and, possibly, whole) future?