James Cameron, Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington's Metric for anAvatarMovie's Success: If It Makes Them Cry (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

From left: James Cameron, Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim, California, on Aug. 9, 2024.Photo:Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Avatarhas to bring the waterworks forJames Cameronto consider it a success.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE at Disney’sD23fan event in Anaheim, California, on Friday, Aug. 9, the director said he believes “the hardest part of the job is to live with every image every day and its [new] detail, but still be able to feel how the movie [affects] you as an audience member.”

“If I can’t cry in the movie, I know I’ve failed seriously, and if I don’t, there’s something wrong,” added Cameron, 69. “It has to be fixed.”

The three-timeOscarwinner went on to admit that he “had that crisis of faith onAvatar 3at one point in an early cut,” when he thought, " ‘We’re not there.’ "

And after they “did some additional work,” Cameron told PEOPLE, “It’s banging now. Absolutely interesting.”

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Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña inAvatar: The Way of Water(2022).20th Century Studios

Reada message ontheAvatarInstagram account, “Get ready to journey back to Pandora.”

Sam WorthingtonandZoe Saldaña, who star in theAvatarfilms, also spoke with PEOPLE on Friday at D23, where Worthington, 48, said, “It’s not about what you see … it’s about how you feel.”

Added Saldaña, 46, “I share the same feeling with the audience, because it’s not easy for me to watch things that I’m a part of, but for some reason when I watchAvatar, I do have an out-of-body experience where I’m watching it as if I was never a part of it,orI’m watching it as if I’m there.”

“The second one, the feeling is so deep,” she said.

From left: Zoe Saldaña James Cameron and Sam Worthington at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim, California, on Aug. 9, 2024.Brian Bowen Smith

Brian Bowen Smith

The franchise’s third installment is expected to hit theaters in December 2025, withAvatar 4following in 2029 andAvatar 5in 2031.

And for Cameron, Worthington and Saldaña, “honoring that process” of evolution and fine-tuning the films has been important to their success, the actress told PEOPLE.

“I feel like that’s what separates a film that is good and a film that is great. Astory that just lives foreveris when you honor that process,” she explained. “We sort of go, ‘We’re not yet there. We’re not going to listen to the formula and the deadlines and the budgets and the, ‘We have to do it like this because everybody else is doing it like this.’ No, no, no. You have to really stay focused and shut down all that noise and just live with the story, and that takes a great deal of concentration.”

“I know when the boss calls and says, ‘Hey, I need you to come in,’ he’s missing something,” Worthington said. “It’s about making it better, making it stronger, making it deeper. So just turn up.”

Avatar: Fire and Ashis slated to hit theaters on Dec. 19, 2025.

source: people.com