Lucasfilm
James Cameron and George Lucas became celebrity filmmakers around the same time. Inspired by Lucas's "Star Wars," Cameron made "The Terminator." Cameron later made "Titanic" when Lucas made his "Star Wars" prequels, then topped himself with "Avatar."
The two filmmakers, as you can imagine, are geeky friends. And since J.J. Abrams took over the Star Wars franchise with "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" last year, James Cameron has opinions.
In an interview with Hannah Litchfield (via Indiewire), Cameron talked about an issue he had with Abrams' take on the franchise:
"Well, George Lucas is a friend of mine. And he and I were having a good conversation the other day about it. I don't want to say too much about the film, 'cause I also have a lot of respect for J.J. Abrams, and I want to see where they're taking it next, to see what they're doing with it. I have to say that I felt that George's group of six films had more innovative visual imagination, and this film was more of a retrenchment to things you had seen before and characters you had seen before, and it took a few baby steps forward with new characters. So for me the jury's out, I wanna see where they go with it."
Cameron doesn't think the new movies has the same "imagination" as the first six Star Wars films, when Lucas was in charge.
"Avatar 2" through "Avatar 5" are scheduled for release between Christmas 2018 and Christmas 2023.