‘Avatar’ Star Says James Cameron’s Epic Can Take More Risks Than Marvel: ‘We Don’t Have Outside Pressures’
“Avatar” star Sam Worthington believes James Cameron’s mystical action film series has more creative freedom than the Marvel Cinematic Universe because it doesn’t face the same “outside pressures” from studios and fans.
“We’re unlike Marvel movies, in the sense of … it feels like an independent movie when we make it,” the actor said in an interview with The Independent on Sunday. “We don’t have outside pressures, or expectations from the press, or the studio or the community. It doesn’t affect what we do. And that’s why we can take more risks.”
He added: “It’s not like we have to get scenes completed by today or the studio is going to be upset. We just play and create. People don’t understand that.”
Cameron’s “Avatar” universe has grossed a total of $6.7 billion, and has remained a must-see franchise in the movie theaters since its first film “Avatar” in 2009, which still sits as the highest-grossing film of all time, having swept in over $2.9 billion.
His latest, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” ignited the holiday box office when it landed in theaters on Dec. 19, 2025. Its theatrical run pulled in a total global box office of $1.488 billion.
While Cameron has been iffy about whether the previously announced fourth and fifth films will actually happen, he has already shot some of the fourth movie.
“We’re in a fluid scenario. Theatrical’s contracting, streaming is expanding,” Cameron said. “People’s habit patterns are changing. The teen demo consumes media differently than what we grew up with. And how much is it changing? Does theatrical contract to a point where it just stops right and doesn’t get any smaller because we still value that, or does it continue to wither away?”
He continued: “I make movies for the big screen. They play well on the small screen because a good story is scalable. But the experience of the film in 3D and that unbroken three-hour engagement of the senses, that doesn’t translate to the streaming model. I want that to persist, but I’m also a realist. I’ll always be a storyteller. I’ll always have a gig. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that I get to continue to do what I’ve been doing. Look, I think we all need to invest in this if we want it to happen.”
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