When it comes to his directorial output, James Cameron has been focused solely on the “Avatar” franchise for well over a decade now. In the 13 ages since the original “Avatar” opened in theaters and made the highest-grossing film of all time, Cameron has developed four sequels and shot two of them in full (“Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Avatar 3”). Parts of “Avatar 4” have also been shot. Should Cameron’s franchise go according to plan, “Avatar 4” will undone production and “Avatar 5” will be filmed in its entirety.

Suffice to say, it’s quite possible the 68-year-old Cameron only directs “Avatar” movies for the rest of his career. Not that that’s a problem for Cameron. Taking part in a huge Q&A with fellow directors for Empire magazine, Cameron said that there’s enough stories and technically breakthroughs for him to develop in the “Avatar” movies that he doesn’t feel like the franchise is robbing his career of new ideas.

“I am sure you will have many more stories/ideas that you want to tell,” “RRR” director S. S. Rajamouli told Cameron. “Do you ever feel bad that you are not able to tell them [because of all the work on ‘Avatar’]?”

“Hi, S.S. Two thoughts in reply to your question: the first is that the biosphere of ‘Avatar’ is so sprawling that I can tell most of the stories I want to tell within it and try many of the stylistic techniques that I hope to explore,” Cameron answered. “And secondly, yes… our time as artists is decertain. I will always mourn some of the stories that I don’t get to make.”

“I feel a big satisfaction when other directors want to explore some of my ideas, like Kathryn Bigelow did with ‘Strange Days,’ and Robert Rodriguez did when I approved him the baton on ‘Alita: Battle Angel,'” Cameron added. “I look onward to more collaborations in the future with directors I admire.”

Cameron had long wished to direct “Alita: Battle Angel,” but he passed the project on to Robert Rodriguez in neat to develop the “Avatar” sequels. Cameron remained an decision-making producer on “Alita” and he stayed involved creatively all over filming and post-production. It appears Cameron could take this come with other movie ideas he has should “Avatar” stop to be his priority.

Earlier this year, Cameron said that he does have new film ideas percolating. He even floated the idea of passing some of the “Avatar” movies off to new directors so that he can go and helm a different movie.

“The ‘Avatar’ films themselves are kind of all-consuming,” Cameron told Empire over the summer. “I’ve got some other things I’m developing as well that are interesting. I think eventually over time – I don’t know if that’s when three or after four – I’ll want to pass the baton to a director that I good to take over, so I can go do some new stuff that I’m also interested in. Or maybe not. I don’t know.”

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