James Cameron is becoming increasingly open to the idea of an Avatar TV show in the near future. Centering around the growing conflict between the native Na’Vi and the colonizing humans on the planet Pandora, Avatar explores humanity’s greed in depth. With Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) defecting to the Na’Vi and forging a family of his own with Neytiri (Zoë Saldana), there is still a wide breadth of Na’Vi life to explore.
Though Avatar creator Cameron said in December that an Avatar TV show is 10 years away, the prospect is now much closer to reality. While previously citing issues with the technological feasibility of an Avatar show, the success of Avatar: The Way of Water has seemingly changed his mind. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Cameron revealed that it is possible that Avatar could start considering a TV show in only five years. Check out his quote below:
“Right now, the economics don’t make sense to spin off any of our CG main characters onto TV. But the cost of these things will progressively come down as we introduce machine deep learning into the processes and make them more automated. Ask me again in five years.”
Why CGI For An Avatar TV Show Would Be A Challenge
While it is certainly feasible for the multi-million dollar productions Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, running CGI for an Avatar TV show would be practically impossible. The benefit of running a movie is that there will be fewer CGI requirements, thanks to its more limited run-time. Even a miniseries would have considerably more hours in a TV show than in a movie.
Even if Avatar: The Way of Water‘s theatrical requirements were massive, thanks to its many different formats, the expectations for a TV show would be tremendous. Likely having a floor of at least four episodes to produce a full show, rather than a mini-movie, the series would be at least twice the size of a film. The profitability of the project would then be questionable, given how many hours of work would need to go into developing the CGI to make the Na’Vi look realistic on-screen.
That alone fails to mention the intensive expectations of Pandora. An entirely alien planet with new fauna and flora, Pandora would be difficult to put on the small screen, given the massive sets or VFX work that would have to go into the world and cultures of Pandora. While Cameron is considering a possible Avatar TV show, the CGI landscape will have to change significantly first to make it viable.
Source: Los Angeles Times