Filmmaker James Cameron has revealed he wanted to wait even longer to release the highly-anticipated Avatar: The Way of Water because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the film's blue carpet premiere in London's Leicester Square on Tuesday (UK time), Cameron said he wanted to wait "another five years to release the film, so we're totally out of the pandemic".
He had been talking about the cost of making the delayed sequel to the world's biggest box office film, which was released in 2009.
It's believed Avatar: The Way of Water's budget is around US$250million.
Cameron said in order for the film to break even, it "probably had to be the seventh or eighth" biggest film of all time, The Hollywood Reporter said.
"Which is quite a daunting bar to get over, especially now, because the market has contracted," he noted.
"I've been working on the production for this for five years, and realising it's done, it's kind of like Zen meditation," he said at the premiere.
Cameron also said he was still determined to continue to make future films set within the Na'vi world and Pandora.
"I want to tell an epic story over a number of films. Let's paint on a bigger canvas. Let's plan it that way. Let's do The Lord of the Rings," he said.
"Of course, they had the books. I had to write the book first - which isn't a book, it's a script."
Avatar: The Way of Water stars Kate Winslet, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington and director James Cameron all attended the London premiere.
The film releases in New Zealand on December 15.