James Cameron Explains Why He Cut 10 Minutes of Gun Violence From ‘Avatar 2’

James Cameron, the visionary director behind some of the biggest blockbusters and influential films such as Titanic, Aliens and Terminator now believes that his films have often been too violent. The director of 'Avatar: The Way of Water,' currently the biggest movie in the world having crossed $1B at the global box office, explains how he regrets making a few of his movies too violent. The Oscar winner reveals in a new interview with Esquire Middle East, how gun violence in America impacted creating the new Avatar sequel.

"I look back on some films that I’ve made, and I don’t know if I would want to make that film now. I don’t know if I would want to fetishize the gun," says Cameron.

The filmmaker known for action movies, admits that he actually believes his films have been too violent, and “the heavy amounts of gun violence that play into films such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day and True Lies have no place in moral moviemaking in the current state of the world.” Cameron revealed "I actually cut about 10 minutes of the movie targeting gunplay action." and "..wanted to get rid of some of the ugliness, to find a balance between light and dark."

Ironically a major point of conversation regarding his latest movie is the extremely long run-time of 3 hours and 12 minutes. However, the film was so entertaining it’s still breaking the box-office around the world. During the interview, Cameron revealed the film would've been 10 minutes longer had it included the scenes with more gun violence. He emphasized that he is no longer interested in fetishizing guns in his action scenes given the rampant gun violence in the U.S. “You have to have conflict, of course. Violence and action are the same thing, depending on how you look at it. This is the dilemma of every action filmmaker, and I’m known as an action filmmaker.”

Cameron said earlier in the interview, “I look back on some films that I’ve made, and I don’t know if I would want to make that film now. I don’t know if I would want to fetishize the gun, like I did on a couple of ‘Terminator’ movies 30-plus years ago, in our current world. What’s happening with guns in our society turns my stomach.”

The Canadian filmmaker goes on to express his happiness living in New Zealand where they just banned all assault rifles two weeks after a horrific mosque shooting a couple of years ago. This clearly impacted his views on making “The Way of Water,” eventually deciding in the end to cut out a lot of the gun action that he deemed unnecessary. Cameron has also teased a new “Terminator” movie, which stems the question, with his new views how will the franchise look if it does return to the big screen? The franchise has experienced flop after flop with the reboots “Terminator Genisys” and “Terminator: Dark Fate” in recent years.

With or without the extra scene, 'Avatar: The Way of Water' is most definitely not actionless. There are still many battles, fights, and explosions. One of the hardest scenes to watch was the hunting excursion of the whale-like creatures, the Tulkun. The Na’vi battle against the hunters and greedy accompanying scientists to protect their native homeland and inhabitants against the ruthless intruders.

“Avatar: The Way of Water” is now playing in theaters nationwide.