James Cameron Cut ‘Avatar 2’ Gun Violence to Avoid ‘Fetizishing’ Firearms

Director James Cameron has admitted to cutting around 10 minutes of gun violence from his latest blockbuster film Avatar: The Way of Water, expressing hope that the move would help avoid the so-called fetishization of firearms. 

In an interview with Esquire Middle East, Cameron revealed the film would’ve run 10 minutes longer than its already over three-hour run time had he not cut out these scenes. 

“I actually cut about 10 minutes of the movie targeting gunplay action,” Cameron said. “I wanted to get rid of some of the ugliness, to find a balance between light and dark. 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, who is Canadian but resides in New Zealand, added that he feels regret over the amount of gun violence in some of his previous films and expressed support for tighter gun regulations as a response to mass shootings.
 

“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,” he said. “What’s happening with guns in our society turns my stomach.”