When James Cameron announced that he was going to make eleventy billion "Avatar" sequels (that's an accurate number, totally not exaggerated by the way) that was the ultimate good news/bad news situation for film fans. It was great news because that meant we were getting a whole bunch new James Cameron movies, but the bad news was they were all going to "Avatar," so if you ever wanted to see another "Terminator" or "The Abyss" or "Titanic" style movie from him, the odds were very low that he'd have time to get around to them.

The man is 68 years old and "Avatar" has at least three more sequels planned through 2028, so — if 20th Century Studios signs off on the fourth and fifth films (the third film has already been shot) — he's going to be booked until at least his mid-70s. But the demands of Pandora aside, it appears that the filmmaker hasn't ruled out directing something non-"Avatar."

In a discussion on IndieWire's Toolkit Podcast about how he balances being fascinated by technology with being concerned with story and character, Cameron made it clear that his interest in fancy new gadgets is all in service of a broader story, and that his interest is not limited to only fantasy and science-fiction tales. The director is just as into pushing the envelope with historical stories, an itch he got to scratch with "Titanic," and he might be looking to return to that kind of filmmaking.

Another James Cameron Historical Epic Might Be In The Cards

James Cameron said that his ultimate goal when telling a story is to show the audience something they haven't seen before, and that's why he makes such an effort to progress available filmmaking technology. In this way, "Avatar" is no different than making a historical epic like "Titanic."

The point he basically made on the podcast is that he's fascinated by stories that require elaborate set builds and cutting-edge visual effects because they both help submerge the audience in the actual emotion of the story. Cameron wants to put on a show — sometimes that means going to an alien planet, and sometimes that means looking backward at human history, which he admitted he still wants to explore:

"I also like history, by the way, and I can imagine doing something like I did with 'Titanic,' but in some other ancient past setting. Anything from Greece to Egypt to Rome or anything in between. I just haven't done that yet."

A James Cameron Roman epic? Can you imagine?

As someone who quite enjoyed "Avatar: The Way of Water," the idea of Cameron making a non-"Avatar" movie in the next decade excites me in a way that an announcement of a couple more Pandora sequels couldn't. Cameron made a career of diverse storytelling — he's done horror, hard sci-fi, action, drama, spy flick, historical epic, and more. If he can realize his "Avatar" vision and have some energy left over to give us a couple more unrelated epics before he hangs up his hat, then the world of cinema will be all the better for it.

Read this next: The 14 Greatest James Cameron Scenes, Ranked

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