James Cameron knew every little thing about his Avatar sequels was going to be epic. The tales, the consequences, even the sheer variety of them. He additionally predicted that the primary sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, can be about three hours lengthy and made Fox conform to it lengthy earlier than Disney purchased the corporate. He’s a assured man—and in a wonderful new profile, he reveals it, with a ton of recent details about the movies, and simply an all-time mic drop quote.

“I said [to Disney], ‘You bought this from a bunch of guys at Fox who agreed to a three-hour movie,’ because that’s what we said we were going to do. We’re going to play the epic game,” Cameron told the Hollywood Reporter. But it will get higher. The reporter then requested the director when is likely to be a great time for audiences to take a fast lavatory break. “Any time they want,” he mentioned. “They can see the scene they missed when they come see it again.”

Yup. James Cameron not solely is aware of you’re going to see Avatar: The Way of Water, he thinks you’re going to return again and see it once more. Which, frankly, most individuals may need to if we’re going to see the total scope of what Cameron had deliberate. There have already been stories of how a lot the sequel has to gross to develop into worthwhile however there’s additionally the query of is there a world the place the third movie, or fourth or fifth, doesn’t occur.

“We’ll probably finish movie three regardless because it’s all shot,” Cameron mentioned. “We’d have to really crater for it not to seem like it was worth the additional investment. We’d have to leave a smoking hole in the ground. Now, hopefully, we get to tell the whole thing because five’s better than four, four’s better than three, and three’s better than two.”

Why cease there although? According to the piece, Cameron already has concepts for Avatar 6 and seven too, although he in all probability gained’t make them himself in the event that they occur. “Obviously, I’m not going to be able to make Avatar movies indefinitely,” Cameron mentioned. “I would have to train somebody how to do this because, I don’t care how smart you are as a director, you don’t know how to do this.”

Those are just some of the quotes in the Hollywood Reporter’s unimaginable profile. We urge you head over there to learn it in full and test again quickly for extra on Avatar: The Way of Water, which opens December 16.

Want extra io9 information? Check out when to anticipate the most recent Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and every little thing it’s good to learn about James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water.