James Cameron wants Avatar sequels to avoid “the Stranger Things effect”

During the lead-up to the release of Avatar: The Way of Water, director James Cameron made headlines for slagging off Marvel films in very entertaining ways. “When I look at these big, spectacular films – I’m looking at you, Marvel and DC – it doesn’t matter how old the characters are, they all act like they’re in college,” he said. “They have relationships, but they really don’t. They never hang up their spurs because of their kids. The things that really ground us and give us power, love, and a purpose? Those characters don’t experience it, and I think that’s not the way to make movies.”

And here’s him crapping on the special effects department at Marvel Studios:

"WETA Effects, as it’s now known, is the best. Right? Industrial Light & Magic does great work, but when it comes to the kind of emotive facial stuff that we’re doing? Thanos? Come on. Give me a break. You saw [Avatar: The Way of Water]. It’s not even close."

This was all hugely entertaining, not least of all because when Avatar 2 finally came out, some of his complaints felt kinda hypocritical. Like…he’s going to criticize Marvel films for having protagonists who act “like they’re in college” only to make a movie where the adults are mostly sidelined in favor of their teenaged children? It smelled a little odd.

James Cameron comes for Marvel, Stranger Things, your kindly grandmother, etc

And Cameron is at it again now, this time coming for Netflix’s hit Stranger Things. He told Entertainment Weekly that one of the reasons he filmed The Way of Water back to back with a couple other Avatar sequels (Avatar 3 is already finished shooting and Avatar 4 is well on the way) was so could avoid “the Stranger Things effect.”

And what is the Stranger Things effect? Well, like Stranger Things, Avatar 2 has a lot of teenagers in it; Jake and Neytiri have several children, including (from oldest to youngest) Neteyam, Kiri, Lo’ak, and Tuk, all of whom are Na’vi. Then there’s Spider, a human child who they sort of unofficially adopt. Cameron wanted to film his movies close together so the actors wouldn’t noticeably age onscreen. “Otherwise, you get — and I love Stranger Things — but you get the Stranger Things effect where they’re supposed to still be in high school [but] they look like they’re 27,” he said. “You know, I love the show. It’s okay, we’ll suspend disbelief. We like the characters, but, you know.”

Again, I am very entertained by this, but Cameron is making even less sense than usual here.

Why “the Stranger Things effect” makes no sense in the context of Avatar 2

First of all, most of the younger actors on Stranger Things — including Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, and Millie Bobby Brown — are in their late teens, and were younger when they filmed the most recent season of the show. They’re literally high school age, so I don’t know what Cameron is on about there. Maybe it’ll start to feel weird in the fifth and final season, but even then, they’ll be 20 or 21 at most, probably still young enough to pull off high school seniors.

Maybe he meant to criticize the “high schoolers” on a show like Riverdale? Now there he might have a point.

Second of all, in Avatar 2, Sigourney Weaver plays Kiri, the 14-year-old daughter of Jake and Neytiri. Sigourney Weaver is 73 years old. Cameron can’t be that concerned about characters seeming their age.

The only character I can see “the Stranger Things effect” affecting is Spider, one of the few important characters played by a human actor with minimal CGI. As Cameron remembers, actor Jack Champion was cast at age 12 and grew “like a weed” after that. “We shot with Jack when he was 14 and 15, almost up to 16. So we were shooting him over an 18-month period.”

Again, this is all in good fun, and I personally look forward to seeing what James Cameron trashes next. Maybe he’ll call Baby Yoda ugly and stupid?

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