James Cameron makes appearance at Canadian premiere for Avatar: Fire and Ash

The latest film in the 'Avatar' series is making its Canadian premiere Wednesday. Iconic Canadian director James Cameron talks about the film.

Famed film director James Cameron made a stop in Toronto on Wednesday evening, gracing the red carpet for the Canadian premiere of “Avatar: Fire and Ash” at Scotiabank Theatre.

The highly anticipated third film of his wildly successful science-fiction franchise, “Fire and Ash,” a three-plus hour epic, will open exclusively in theatres worldwide on Friday.

Cameron, who hails from Kapuskasing, Ont., has been travelling around the globe promoting his latest film. He said he specifically chose to come to Canada for the premiere.

“(I’ve gone to) China, France, etc., I actually insisted on coming here,” he told CTV News Toronto’s Andria Case on Wednesday from the red carpet.

“I said, ‘C’mon I’m Canadian born and bred. We gotta go to Canada.’”

Cameron said the vision for Avatar, the first film coming out in 2009, began years before it hit the screen.

“Going back, I wrote the first story in 1995, but it didn’t have all the new stories in it at that point. It was just the first film,” he said.

“And then when we got busy on the sequels, we basically wrote four movies. So there are two more than I could make but I think it’s important for people to realize this one doesn’t just go off a cliff like another chapter.”

The director went on to say that “Fire and Ash” has a full culmination and an ending to it.

“If we do go on … I mean, if we do well with this one, and I go on, then four and five kind of become one big story, as well,” said Cameron, who added that the latest installment of Avatar is one that people could watch without having seen the previous two editions.

“All of the questions you might have in your mind are answered as we go along in this film,” he said, noting that he “strongly recommends” people see at least “The Way of Water,” which was released in 2022, alluding to a tragic event that occurs in that movie that is revisited in this latest edition.

“It’s good to see it and feel it going into this, because then you’ll feel what the character’s going through a little more quickly at the beginning of the movie.”

Cameron also spoke with CP24’s Jee Yun Lee about “Fire and Ice’s” storyline, its focus on love, family, friendship and loyalty.

The film, Lee said, also introduces a new character: Varang, the queen of the Ash people.

“We knew that we were continuing this story of the Sully family and we made a presumption that the audience cares about these people, now let’s challenge that,” he said, adding that Neytiri, the family’s matriarch, is portrayed as a little less likeable, but there’s hope that she can heal herself coming out of a place of loss and hatred.

“What we strove for in this is a more emotional connection.”

He added the film requires a “real investment on the part of the audience,” to “walk in the shoes of these characters.”

This is achieved, he added, through visual realism and realism in the performances.