Why Avatar 2 Is Three Freakin' Hours Long

Avatar: Way of the Water (not to be confused with Avatar: The Last Airbender) will feature a three-hour, 10-minute runtime. Director James Cameron says it's because there's more emotion, according to his new interview with Total Film (via Variety).

"The goal is to tell an extremely compelling story on an emotional basis," Cameron said. "I would say the emphasis in the new film is more on character, more on story, more on relationships, more on emotion. We didn't spend as much time on relationship and emotion in the first film as we do in the second film, and it’s a longer film, because there's more characters to service. There’s more story to service."

"People say, 'Oh my god, a family story from Disney? Just what we want,'" Cameron continued. "This isn't that kind of family story. This is a family like Sopranos is a family story."

Cameron has been on a tear this year with comments about his and other films. In addition to comparing his film to Sopranos, he also compared it to Lord of the Rings. He also said that Marvel characters have to have kids for the films to be mature (in addition to calling Aquaman unrealistic in 2019), and reminded us that his movies are "hideously expensive," which is why the planned Avatar films 4 and 5 might not happen. He also said that if you saw his film at home, you "really haven't seen it."

Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters on December 16, 2022.