How To Explain Success? James Cameron And The Cast Give Us The 3 Keys To Success!

Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, newcomer Oona Chaplin and, of course, director and screenwriter James Cameron. They all responded to the Parisian invitation to unveil in preview Avatar 3: Fire and Ash. A third opus as a conclusion to a piece of the history of Pandora and the Sullys, the flaws and qualities of which we have pointed out in our review.

With two parts having well exceeded two billion (or even almost three billion for the first opus), we can legitimately assume that this one will follow The Way of Water in the Pantheon of entries. The routine for James Cameron who has already placed his Titanic. And while few American blockbusters have outperformed this year, apart from Lilo & Stitchone might wonder what the filmmaker’s secret is.

1 / Real themes

“I’ve only had about five good ideas in my life. I just repackage them into different forms.” he laughs when asked if a nod to Titanic did not slip into Avatar 3. The formula, however, contains some truth. His cinema has always highlighted strong and universal themes, “family, identity, purpose. Where is my place? Once I find it, how do I earn their respect and my legitimacy?”. What Cameron’s filmography is about is the human experience.

Let us come from the future to save humanity; that one becomes an adoptive mother millions of km away in space; or follow “a family of refugees, mostly displaced immigrants” on Pandora, there’s always something about James Cameron where “people can relate”. He does not hide the fact that he conceived the movies Avatar like an accessible, very human gateway to his cinemaso that we feel immersed in reality while the story takes place in a fantastic world.

2 / Trust and teamwork

The strength of the bond was essential in the design of each film in the saga, including for the actors on set. Oona Chaplin, face of the antagonist Varang that we discover here, still marvels at the feeling she had when sitting down for the first time at the reading table, that ofimmediately belonging to a circle of trust where everyone plays for the other, understands the message behind the story. “For me, it all starts with writing. I propose these characters, I imagine them. Then comes this moment when I choose an exceptional actor to play them. At this moment, I pass the baton to him, I tell him: “It’s up to you to bring this character to life”.

The cast worked together for eighteen months to film The Way of Water et Of Fire and Ashessomething to tie a deep connection that is felt on screen. Zoe Saldana, who plays Neytiri, describes the director as “a storyteller, a captain, but also a father figure” and she thanks Sam (Worthington) for always being there. The latter, eternal Jake Sully, specifies that the film wouldn’t work if we didn’t feel the emotion and complexity of the characters.

The biggest challenge came from Sigourney Weaver, who is set to play teenage Kiri in both films. An experience far from his first collaboration with James Cameron on Aliensbut she continues to welcome the feeling of security it provokes, letting them “explore all the dimensions of a scene”. No matter how much we criticize Avatar 3 in many aspects, it is undeniable that the actors bring a lot to the film through their acting.

Whether it is the conductor with his teams or even the talents among themselves, we feel that all the mechanics Avatar works through trust, recognition. Moreover, Stephen Lang, aka the indestructible Colonel Quaritch, remembers with emotion that he received a letter from Cameron and John Landau (the producer of the saga, unfortunately deceased) simply thanking him for having read the script, as if it was he who had done them a favor.

3 / The importance of legacy to future generations

We know the director/screenwriter has been close to the ecological issue for decades and Avatar 3just like The Way of Water or the first, carries a hint of environmental and, at the same time, political message. “We feel the growing urgency in our world. The ocean is suffering enormously, and we will not be able to live without it. The pressure on the ocean is immense and must be discussed by all nations – which is happening – except ours which does not seem to participate.”

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James Cameron has always been a filmmaker with an eye on the future, whether of the profession and its usesas in the world around it. And he concludes the lecture with a confession which could serve equally well to depict Avatar 3the saga and our society as a whole:

“I was bruised by the profession, and I was not used to this grace that was offered to me by these artists. Yes, it is a film about mourning, loss, trauma. And about healing, about how to move forward, to carry your burden, to break the cycle of violence born of hatred. We see this in the world today. Every time it was difficult, it was for the common good: to tell a great story, to be part of something unique. And to see the young actors becoming men and women, seeing them bring to life the Sully children, the real heroes of Of Fire and Ashes, that’s what distinguishes a beautiful, lasting story from one that disappears after the film’s release”.

Avatar 3: Fire and Ash has been on our screens since on December 17, 2025.