It's not unfair to say that James Cameron isn't a massively prolific filmmaker. However, despite only directing nine features compared to Steven Spielberg's thirty-four, his work has grossed a massive $8.7 billion worldwide. For context, that's only $2.1 billion less than Spielberg's entire catalogue.
Following his groundbreaking work on the Terminator franchise, Cameron helmed Aliens, a sequel to Sir Ridley Scott's Alien which is still rightly considered a classic and, for many, better than its predecessor.
Many of the filmmaker's fans have argued that he's wasting the remainder of his career working on the Avatar franchise; however, given the record-breaking box office hauls of both movies and their cultural impact (Disney World has a real-life Pandora and Disneyland is up next), that's up for debate.
One thing which is now certain is that Cameron has no intention of making another Alien movie.
"It’s kind of trampled ground at this point," he tells The Guardian (via SFFGazette.com), likely referring to the many cracks which have been taken at the property since Aliens. "I wouldn’t rule anything out but I’ve got 23 other projects in the queue before that hypothetical one so I’m going to guess, with me turning 70, that ain’t gonna happen. You’ve got to pick your battles at some point. You know what I mean?"
Cameron, who is currently busy putting the finishing touches to Avatar: Fire And Ash, also downplayed his widely reported involvement with Fede Álvarez's Alien: Romulus.
"I wasn’t really helping out," he insists. "I know Fede, the director, and very early on he and his writing partner came to me and said, 'Got any ideas?' – no, they had plenty of ideas but they just wanted to kind of, I don’t know, pilgrimage to Mecca or something like that. But that was years ago, then they went off and wrote their thing and I had nothing to do with it."
"Then six months ago or so he shared an early cut of the film with me and I gave him some notes for like an hour. I don’t want to take any credit whatsoever," Cameron continued. "If the film is great, I don’t want to take any credit; if it sucks, not my fault! Seriously, it’s his thing, so credit due where it’s due and, from what I’m hearing, it’s pretty good."
It's understandable that he'd be a little way about endorsing a movie like Alien: Romulus, particularly as he once gave his seal of approval to Terminator Genisys, a movie that ended up being a disaster when it was finally released.
Alien: Romulus is now playing in theaters, while Avatar: Fire and Ash arrives on December 19, 2025. Once Cameron is finished working on the latter, he'll shift focus to the still-untitled Avatar 4.