James Cameron is about to complete his latest blockbuster sci-fi trilogy with Avatar 3 after his last blockbuster sci-fi trilogy was finished by a different director. Since 2009, Cameron has been almost exclusively working on his ambitious plans for four (or possibly as many as six) Avatar sequels. The immense blockbuster success of Avatar: The Way of Water proved there’s still an audience for Cameron’s mind-blowing 3D spectacle. The third movie, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is hoping to replicate that success on December 19, 2025.

Much like The Way of Water, Fire and Ash will explore new corners of Pandora and introduce new variants of Na’vi. In this one, audiences will go to the fiery volcanoes of Pandora and meet the “Ash People.” As with the previous films, Cameron is directing, co-producing, and working on the script for the threequel. This isn’t the first time that Cameron has mounted a major sci-fi movie franchise, but it will be the first time he’s managed to finish his own trilogy.

Avatar 3 Will Complete The Sci-Fi Trilogy Cameron Never Did With Terminator

Cameron Only Directed Two Of The Terminator Movies

With his work on Avatar: Fire and Ash, Cameron will finally complete a sci-fi movie trilogy after all these years of filmmaking. He almost finished the Terminator trilogy — he created the franchise with 1984’s The Terminator and expanded it into blockbuster territory with 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day — but Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was helmed by Jonathan Mostow. Although Cameron would co-write and produce Terminator: Dark Fate, he never directed another Terminator movie, so his trilogy remains incomplete.

James Cameron Directing Terminator 3 Would’ve Changed The Franchise’s Future

The Terminator Rights Got Tangled Up In Liquidation

Although Cameron was initially interested in directing Terminator 3, the threequel got made without him. The rights became complicated by Carolco’s liquidation auction and negotiations with producer Gale Ann Hurd, and Cameron got squeezed out of the process. Terminator 3 followed on from the story that Cameron began in the first two movies, but it undid a lot of their most satisfying dramatic payoffs (namely, the destruction of Skynet). If Cameron had directed Terminator 3 instead of Mostow, it would’ve drastically changed the franchise’s future.

It’s not just a matter of whether Cameron was going to direct the threequel; it was also a matter of rights and budgeting. Since Terminator 3, the Terminator franchise has been floundering, trying to figure out an angle and an approach that work. It hasn’t been a clear, cohesive story since T2; it gets rebooted and rewritten with each new entry. If Cameron had been steering the ship the whole way, like he’s doing with Avatar 3 and its upcoming sequels, it would’ve been a more coherent sci-fi saga.