In 2013, James Cameron promised fans three more Avatar sequels, and to date, he has partially delivered on this promise. Avatar: The Way of Water made its premiere in December of last year, and in less than three months, it has climbed to the third spot on the list of the highest-grossing films of all time.
Given how successful the Avatar franchise has proven to be, we can expect to see more Avatar films in the near future. But, before Avatar 4 hits theaters in 2026, Cameron wants to adapt the Charles R. Pellegrino World War II book, The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back, according to the LA Times.
Published in 2010, the book gives a historical account of the events leading up to, during, and following the subsequent bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cameron optioned the book in 2010, saying:
It’s a subject that I’ve wanted to do a film about, that I’ve been wrestling with how to do it, over the years, and I don’t have an answer yet. [Pellegrino’s] book is one of presumably many sources that I’ll use for information to be as historically accurate as possible.
Prior to his passing in 2010, the 68-year-old filmmaker paid a visit to Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person known to have survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. Since then, Cameron has been hard at work on a variety of other projects, including Alita: Battle Angel and Terminator: Dark Fate. But the conflict in Ukraine has generated disquiet all throughout the world, a point Cameron recently emphasized, saying:
We live in a more precarious world than we thought we did. I think the Hiroshima film would be as timely as ever, if not more so. It reminds people what these weapons really do when they’re used against human targets.
The film adaptation won't hit theaters until sometime in 2025, considering Avatar 3 is currently in post-production and is scheduled to be released in 2024.
In the meantime, we all can look forward to Christopher Nolan's biopic Oppenheimer, which chronicles physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer's creation of the atomic bomb.
