James Cameron's never been shy about his ambitions for creating an Avatar cinematic universe. After the first film's phenomenal success, he decided to make two sequels. That then got bumped to three sequels, with a squadron of writers assisting him in putting each of the movies together. The first new installment has since been pushed to a 2017 release date, but in the midst of all of that it appears he's somehow found time to write a fifth Avatar movie already.

In a recent interview with HeyUGuys, composer James Horner — who's worked with Cameron on other films like Titanic — explains that the filmmaker has already written a fourth sequel that he's currently trying to integrate into the three initial sequels. "He's got four sequels, script-wise, and he's trying to make it into three," Horner says. "And I think that's where his effort is going right now, to keep it to three sequels."

"He's trying to make it into three."

The composer goes on to say that he's confident Cameron will eventually figure out how to meld the stories together, which would prevent our world from becoming an Avatar-filled hellscape with new films stretching all the way to 2020. Assuming Cameron pulls it off, we'd be seeing the final Avatar film in a much more reasonable 2019, instead. It's obvious that the writer-director feels there are a tremendous number of stories to be told about the Na'vi and the future world of Avatar, and given his track record he's certainly earned the benefit of the doubt. We're just hoping that eventually he can get around to other projects. Like True Lies 2.