Cameron explains the 3-hour length of "Avatar 2": There are more emotional lines

Avatar 2: The Path of Water has a running time of an astonishing 3 hours and 10 minutes (190 minutes). According to director James Cameron in a new interview with Total Film, this is because the sequel will have more emotional plots.

"Our goal was to tell an extremely compelling story based on emotion," Cameron said. "I would say the new film is more about the characters, the story, the relationships, the emotions. We didn't spend as much time on the relationships and the emotions in the first film as we did in the second film. And it's a longer film because there are more characters to develop. And there are more stories to tell."

"People say, 'Oh my god, a Disney family story? That's exactly what we want.'" Cameron continued: "This isn't that kind of family story. This is a Sopranos-style family story."

“I don’t want anyone who will sit through eight hours of TV to complain about the length of a film,” Cameron said. “I could almost write this review: ‘An agonizing three-hour film…’ It’s like, give me a fucking break. I’ve seen my kids sit through five one-hour episodes. That’s the big societal paradigm shift that has to happen: it’s OK to get up to go to the bathroom.”

"Avatar: The Path of Water" will be released on December 16, 2022.