James Cameron explains why new Avatar movie is so very long

Avatar: The Way of Water has such a long run time that director James Cameron is encouraging pee breaks.

To be honest, we'd be surprised if we made it through a film titled The Way of Water without going to the toilet, especially since it's a crime to go to the cinema and not get a Tango Ice Blast.

But it turns out that Cameron is completely fine with bathroom breaks. In fact, he's actually encouraged them if it stops people complaining about the length of the movie, which is set to be a whopping two hours and 40 minutes long.

But to be fair, we've definitely binged series' in one session that is way longer, something that Cameron points out.

"I don't want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch for eight hours [...] I can almost write this part of the review," he told Empire.

"'The agonisingly long three-hour movie...' It's like, give me a f*****g break. I've watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row."

Despite his TV views, the director understands that sometimes nature calls: "Here's the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it's okay to get up and go pee."

And we don't need any more permission than that.

Though Cameron further explained his runtime choice further in a recent interview with Total Film.

Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

The director said that his intentions for the film influenced its length: "The goal is to tell an extremely compelling story on an emotional basis.

"I would say the emphasis in the new film is more on character, more on story, more on relationships, more on emotion. We didn’t spend as much time on relationship and emotion in the first film as we do in the second film, and it’s a longer film, because there’s more characters to service. There’s more story to service."

So, there you have it, pee breaks are okay and the film is that long because it serves the story —duh.

The new film is set to premiere on 16 December 2022, and picks up 10 years after the events of the first film.

The trailer shows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) learning more about the Na'vi people on Pandora, with his partner Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) by his side.

Disney

And if that's not enough to hype you up for the film, Saldana's reaction might be, as according to the actor, it took her just 20 minutes into the film to cry, which sounds like the kind of time we'd take our first pee break.

As Saldana recounted: "I can get choked up just talking about it because I was able to see just 20 minutes of the second installment right before the year ended, last year.

"And I was speechless, I was moved to tears."

So, there you have it, if you want to be left 'speechless' and have pre-approved pee breaks, watch Avatar: The Way of Water this December.