KING OF THE WORLD

After weathering a decade of skepticism, James Cameron revels in the success of the Avatar sequel

- ELIANA DOCKTERMAN

JAMES CAMERON WANTED A VEGAN SET on Avatar: The Way of Water. Anything less would be hypocritical. The sci-fi epic, which reportedly cost more than $350 million, centers on aliens fending off invading humans who have depleted earth’s resources. “We couldn’t lecture oil companies and turn around and eat hamburgers,” he says.

Cameron may have also intended to make a larger point to Hollywood. When the director brought the idea for the first Avatar to 20th Century Fox, he says executives asked him to strip the script of “tree hugging” because they thought it wouldn’t sell tickets. He refused. Avatar went on to achieve massive success, grossing nearly $3 billion globally. Since then, other movies like Avengers: Infinity War have tackled climate change. Still, that Marvel blockbuster doesn’t exactly endorse green activism. In fact, it’s the villain who becomes so concerned with waning resources that he uses magic to snap his fingers and demolish half of all life in the universe. “I can relate to Thanos,” Cameron says. “I thought he had a pretty viable answer. The problem is nobody is going to put up their hand to volunteer to be the half that has to go.”

As one of the most successful directors in history, Cameron could have snapped his fingers and mandated the new on-set catering rules. After all, he has made three of the four highest-grossing movies of all time, and never lost a single dollar on any of his nine feature films. Over Super Bowl weekend, two of his movies, Way of Water and a 25th-anniversary rerelease of Titanic, topped the global box office.