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When James Cameron talks about his next project, we will always be listening. There is always necessity for tempered excitement though, as Cameron is not the sort of filmmaker who moves fast from project to project. It’s just his methodical way. So when he begins talking to Hero Complex about Avatar sequels (not sequel, sequels), it is important for us to remind ourselves that even if he finds the right story, it could be years before anything real takes shape. That said, he seems to have an idea of where he’s like to go next.

When asked about where he goes from here, Cameron — whose highest grossing film of all-time hits DVD and Blu-ray today — talked about playing around in the massive world of Avatar. “We created a broad canvas for the environment of film. That’s not just on Pandora, but throughout the Alpha Centauri AB system,” he explained. “And we expand out across that system and incorporate more into the story – not necessarily in the second film, but more toward a third film.” A third film, eh? Interesting.

Cameron also went on to talk about the environment he’d like to show off in a second film, the oceans of Pandora. “Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different environment – a different setting within Pandora,” he said. “And I’m going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative, but it just won’t be a rain forest. I’m not saying we won’t see what we’ve already seen; we’ll see more of that as well.”

With Avatar‘s worldwide gross well over two billion dollars and not one, but two DVD releases planned — not to mention a theatrical re-release of a longer cut of the film later this year — it’s easy to see where the money for the next film would come from. Avatar, and everything about the world of Pandora, oozes the color of money. The logical step for Cameron is to begin work on a sequel immediately. It’s not exactly his style — he likes to take his time between projects — but the demand is there. The only question is timing. As Cameron explained, they would be looking to cut production time and budget in half, which is an impossible task. Even if they achieved the more modest goal of cutting out a quarter of the budget and time, that means we still wouldn’t see another Avatar film for 3-4 years. And that’s a long time to wait, even for a sequel to the highest grossing film of all-time.