James Cameron may already be deep into “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” but that doesn’t mean he’s done dreaming up what comes next.
Oscar-winning costume designer Deborah Scott, who has worked closely with Cameron across multiple projects, has revealed that the famed filmmaker is always thinking several steps ahead – even if a seven-film “Avatar” saga isn’t locked in just yet.
“I don’t know about six or seven,” Scott, 71, exclusively told The Post. “We’ve always had a sort of plan for four or five, possibly. We’ll see how these movies do, how the public likes this one.
“I think he’s prepared for anything,” she added. “Jim always has something up his sleeve. There are always new worlds to go to, in ‘Avatar’ or something else.”
Cameron himself has echoed that long-term mindset. The director previously revealed that the “Avatar” story is already mapped out well beyond “Fire and Ash” and that he’s far from short on ideas.
“We’re fully written through movie five, and I’ve got ideas for six and seven,” the “Terminator” director, 71, told People last year. “Although I’ll probably be handing the baton on at that point. I mean, mortality catches up.”
The “Avatar” franchise, which has already generated billions of dollars at the global box office, is set on the lush alien moon Pandora and follows former Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and the Na’vi as they face evolving threats.
Cameron has likened the fictional universe to the epic sci-fi worlds, like “Star Trek” and “Star Wars,” that inspired him growing up.
“The world-building franchises that have been around since I was a kid – those were my inspirations,” he said in Feb. 2024. “We’re still a young universe. We’re only two movies in, and we’re halfway through our third right now.
“To have that kind of cultural impact over time, you’ve got to pour all your heat and energy into it,” the “Aliens” director added.
That sense of endless possibility is baked directly into the world of Pandora itself.
Scott said that Cameron has no interest in repeating the same visual or emotional terrain because he would rather push the saga into uncharted territory with each new installment.
“Pandora is always interesting,” the “Minority Report” costume designer told The Post. “It’s exciting because there’s going to be new stuff. We’re not going to stay in the same place we are now, and I think that’s going to have incredible creative challenges.”
Those challengers have become a hallmark of Cameron’s career, dating all the way back to “Titanic” in 1997.
Scott, who won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for her work on the epic film, shared how the Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet-led movie set the standard for how Cameron now approaches every project – including “Fire and Ash.”
“[‘Titanic’] was also groundbreaking,” she said. “The way he shot it, the enormity of the set, all of the special and visual effects, the fact that it was a historical drama set in a real time and place.
“The bar that they set in terms of everything being perfect matches what I feel and what I do in my work,” Scott continued. “So it makes for a good team. But it’s a very high bar, the reality that you’re working in.”
That bar extends not only to spectacle, but to character as well. Scott teased that “Avatar” fans are going to be drawn to one new character in particular.
“I have a soft spot for [Zoe Saldaña’s] Neytiri. I think she’s got a great character. Zoe’s amazing,” the Oscar-winning costume designer told The Post. “And of course, the new characters. Varang, played by Oona Chaplin. Oona’s performance is unbelievable. I think the fans are going to love her.”
Despite the franchise’s heavy use of CGI and performance capture – a technique that Cameron pioneered and refined across the “Avatar” films – Scott said that the emotional reality of the characters never gets lost.
“When I look at the characters, I don’t see blue,” she declared. “I see Sam Worthington, and I see Zoe Saldaña, because they’re so real.”
In fact, Scott revealed that Cameron often had actors fully or partially dressed in costume before stepping into performance capture – a move designed to ground them in their character before the technology took over.
“It’s an interesting thing because I think everybody comes in with this sort of wonderment about what Jim’s going to do,” she explained. “Performance capture is really fun because there are so many actors involved on set at the same time.
“Jim had me, pretty often, dress the actors in either something related to their costumes or in their actual costumes so that they had a sense of what was going on before they had to remove it from the performance markers.”
That hands-on approach is why, for Scott, working on “Avatar” doesn’t feel all that different from traditional filmmaking – even with its always evolving cutting-edge tools.
“Live action is pretty similar,” the “Back to the Future” costume designer told The Post. “Since we approach our virtual movies in such a live-action way, by building the costumes and fitting the costumes, it doesn’t feel that much different.
“The ‘Avatar’ films are probably the most creative of the things I’ve been able to do,” Scott added. “They have no relationship to a period of time or a certain real-life situation. We’re world-building with the production designers and with Jim.”
For Scott, that creative freedom is what ultimately makes the “Avatar” films stand apart.
“So that’s really fun because you start with great writing and an amazing director, and you follow that creative trail,” she concluded.
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” is now in theaters. The cast is rounded out by Sigourney Weaver (Kiri), Stephen Lang (Miles Quaritch), Winslet (Ronal) and Michelle Yeoh (Dr. Karina Mogue).
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