James Cameron has defended Avatar: The Way Of Water‘s three-hour runtime, saying those who find the film too long can simply “get up and go pee”.

READ MORE: Avatar 2: Everything we know about the upcoming sci-fi epic

Speaking to Empire, the director said he didn’t want to see people complaining about the upcoming sequel’s length when many are quite willing to binge-watch several hours of TV in one sitting.

“I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours,” he said. “I can almost write this part of the review. ‘The agonisingly long three-hour movie…’ It’s like, give me a fucking break.

“I’ve watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row. Here’s the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: It’s okay to get up and go pee.”

Cameron also addressed the criticism from some fans that interest in an Avatar sequel has faded over time.

“The trolls will have it that nobody gives a shit and they can’t remember the characters’ names or one damn thing that happened in the movie,” he said. “Then they see the movie again and go, ‘Oh, okay, excuse me, let me just shut the fuck up right now.’ So I’m not worried about that.”

Avatar: The Way Of Water will be first of four planned sequels to the 2009 record-breaking film. In the Empire interview, Cameron revealed that the third film has already finished filming, but that he may not return to direct the fourth and fifth instalments.

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

On planning the future sequels, he added: “I got more excited as I went along. Movie four is a corker. It’s a motherfucker. I actually hope I get to make it. But it depends on market forces. Three is in the can so it’s coming out regardless. I really hope that we get to make four and five because it’s one big story, ultimately.”

The upcoming sequel will see the return of Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver, while new additions include Kate Winslet, Vin Diesel, Jermaine Clement and Michelle Yeoh.

The first official teaser trailer for Avatar: The Way Of Water was released in May this year. You can watch it here.