James Cameron Explains ‘Avatar 2’ Three-Hour Runtime: ‘We Didn’t Spend as Much Time on Emotion’ in the First Film

“Avatar: The Way of Water” is set to run approximately three hours and 10 minutes, nearly 30 minutes longer than the already-long original “Avatar” in 2009. James Cameron told Total Film magazine that his “Avatar” sequel runs so much longer because there is an increased focus on “relationship and emotion” compared to the first movie.

“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.”

Not only are protagonists Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) returning in the sequel, but the two characters also now have children (one of which is played by Sigourney Weaver) that are main characters.

“People say, ‘Oh my God, a family story from Disney? Just what we want…’ This isn’t that kind of family story,” Cameron added. “This is a family story like how ‘The Sopranos’ is a family story.” 

In an interview with Empire magazine over the summer, Cameron confirmed “Avatar: The Way of Water” was “currently coming in at around three hours” and told moviegoers he was not interested in hearing their complaints.

“I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours,” Cameron said. “I can almost write this part of the review. ‘The agonizingly long three-hour movie…’ It’s like, give me a fucking break. I’ve watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row. Here’s the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it’s okay to get up and go pee.”

“Avatar: The Way of Water” opens in theaters nationwide Dec. 16.

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