Vin Diesel Was Never Starring in ‘Avatar’ Films Despite Rumors, Says Producer Jon Landau
Samantha Bergeson
The rumor mill was running too fast, too furious for “Avatar” fans.
After Vin Diesel sent “Avatar” audiences into a frenzy with a 2019 Instagram video opposite James Cameron, “Avatar: The Way of Water” producer Jon Landau shut down claims that Diesel was ever approached to star.
“Vin was a fan,” Jon Landau told Empire magazine. “He came in, visited the set one day to see what we were doing and people took that out of context.”
In the video, Diesel teased alongside Cameron that “there is one person in Hollywood I’ve always wanted to work with and learn from, and so, all things come, I guess, to those that wait.” However, Diesel is not in “The Way of Water,” and instead will next be seen onscreen in “Fast and Furious” installment “Fast X.”
Meanwhile, “Avatar” writer-director Cameron confirmed that more sequels are on the way.
“It looks like just with the momentum that the film has now that we’ll easily pass our break-even in the next few days, so it looks like I can’t wiggle out of this — I’m going to have to do these other sequels,” Cameron said during HBO’s “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” (via The Hollywood Reporter). “I know what I’m going to be doing the next six or seven years. The point is we’re going to be OK. I’m sure that we’ll have a discussion soon with the top folks at Disney about the game plan going forward for ‘Avatar 3,’ which is already in the can – we’ve already captured and photographed the whole film, so we’re in extended postproduction to do all that CG magic. And then ‘Avatar 4’ and ‘5’ are both written. We even have some of ‘4’ in the can. We’ve begun a franchise at this point. We’ve begun a saga that can now play out over multiple films.”
So, could Diesel appear in one of the many follow-ups? Cameron already teased that Matt Damon could be joining the “Avatar” cinematic universe over a decade after the “Bourne Identity” actor turned down the lead role for the 2009 feature (the part eventually went to Sam Worthington).
“We must do it,” Cameron said of casting Damon. “We have to do it so that the world is in equilibrium again.”
