James Cameron has dedicated the better part of two decades to building the world of Pandora. After the original Avatar shattered box office records in 2009, fans endured a thirteen-year wait for its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, which arrived in 2022. That lengthy development cycle was necessary to ensure the somewhat speedy arrival of its sequel, as the third installment, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is set to release this year, with at least two more sequels planned for 2029 and 2031. This long-term commitment to a single franchise is rare, even for the most successful directors, and in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Cameron revealed the personal philosophy that keeps him so devoted to the Na’vi and their ongoing story.

“I’ve justified making Avatar movies to myself for the last 20 years, not based on how much money we made, but on the basis that hopefully it can do some good, it can help connect us, it can help connect us to our lost aspect of ourself that connects with nature and respects nature and all those things,” Cameron said. “So do I think that movies are the answer to our human problems? No, I think they’re limited because people sometimes just want entertainment, and they don’t want to be challenged in that way. I think Avatar is a Trojan horse strategy that gets you into a piece of entertainment, but then works on your brain and your heart a little bit in a way.”

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Even if financial success is not Cameron’s primary motivator, the Avatar films are undeniable commercial juggernauts. The first film remains the highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide, with a staggering lifetime gross of over $2.92 billion. The sequel, The Way of Water, proved the franchise’s enduring appeal, becoming the third highest-grossing film in history with a global take of $2.32 billion. The staggering success of both movies provides the financial foundation that allows Cameron the freedom to continue pursuing his ambitious vision for Pandora’s future.

Avatar: Fire and Ash Will Expand James Cameron’s Sci-Fi Saga

The next chapter of Cameron’s saga, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is poised to significantly expand the mythology of Pandora by introducing a new antagonist faction of Na’vi. The story picks up after the tragic events of The Way of Water and will introduce the Mangkwan Clan, a volcanic tribe often called the “Ash People.” This clan is led by the formidable warrior Varang, played by Oona Chaplin. Cameron has stated that he wants to explore more complex moral territory in the sequels, moving beyond the simple “humans are bad, Na’vi are good” dynamic of the first film. The fire-wielding Ash People will represent a darker side of the Na’vi, shaped by a harsher environment, and may even form an alliance with the human RDA forces led by the resurrected Colonel Miles Quaritch.

Avatar: Fire and Ash also marks a narrative shift, with the story now told from the perspective of Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) instead of his father, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington). This change reflects the growing importance of the younger generation, which Cameron underlines will become more important in upcoming movies. Key characters like Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), Ronal (Kate Winslet), and the human character Spider (Jack Champion) all return for the threequel, ensuring the Sully family stays together while facing new threats.

Cameron’s world-building ambitions extend even beyond the five-film saga. He recently revealed that he is actively developing an animated Avatar anthology series to explore unseen corners of the franchise. Inspired by projects like The Animatrix, the series would allow for stories that do not fit within the main narrative, such as the first human expedition to Pandora or other tangential events. This spinoff demonstrates a commitment to adding rich texture and detail to the world of Avatar, creating a multi-faceted universe that can be explored through different media.

Avatar: Fire and Ash arrives in theaters on December 19, 2025.

What part of Na’vi culture are you most excited to see explored in the upcoming sequel? Let us know in the comments!

The post James Cameron Reveals Why He Keeps Making Avatar Movies (And It’s Not the Money) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

James Cameron is taking the world back to Pandora this holiday season with the release of Cameron’s new sci-fi adventure, Avatar: Fire & Ash, and the movie’s villain already looks to be an extremely scary and formidable one. The third movie in Cameron’s epic Avatar franchise, Fire & Ash is set to take place a year after the events of 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, with human-turned-Na’vi hero Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and their Na’vi family facing a new conflict with another Na’vi tribe, the mysterious Ash People. Additionally, Jake’s old nemesis, Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), is also back for revenge against Jake and his loved ones, which will inevitably escalate the conflict even more.

Lang’s performance as the utterly ruthless Quaritch promises to be a very high bar to meet for Fire & Ash‘s new antagonist, the Ash People’s leader Varang (Oona Chaplin). However, she has already gone a long way to accomplishing exactly that goal in the Fire & Ash trailer, in a scene with Varang holding Neytiri’s daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) hostage. In the scene in question, Varang coldly sneers at Neytiri, “Your goddess has no dominion here”. With just that one line of dialogue from Varang, the Fire & Ash trailer has already sold her as the villainous equal of Quaritch.

There Is More to the Na’vi Religion Than We’ve Seen (So Far)

Varang’s cold-blooded line in the Avatar: Fire and Ash trailer has a number of layers to it that highlight what kind of villainess she will be and even some possible new details about life on Pandora. To begin with, Varang’s reference to Eywa’s lack of dominion on the Ash Clan’s territory (Eywa being the Na’vi goddess from the first two Avatar movies being referenced) really sells her as having no reluctance to kill her enemies and rub it in the faces of their families. Whether Varang is taking Kiri hostage or is ready to kill her right then and there, she clearly has no reluctance to do either, already setting her up as a chilling villainess in Fire & Ash.

Additionally, Varang’s reference to Eywa could reveal that the Na’vi are actually polytheistic. The previous two Avatar movies seemingly centered Eywa as either the sole or at least primary deity worshipped by the Na’vi, with the indigenous population of Pandora even having a direct link to Eywa through the planet’s vast forests and their ability to interface with the Tree of Souls. Varang’s line could suggest that the Na’vi’s religion is either polytheistic or that the Ash Clan prays to a different but equally powerful deity of their own. In turn, Varang’s suggestion that Eywa has no power in the Ash Clan’s territory is the first real restriction the Avatar franchise has placed upon Eywa’s power and omnipresence, which could hint at a far larger Na’vi cosmology than even what the first two Avatar movies revealed.

Avatar: Fire & Ash Focuses on the Na’vi’s Tribal Conflicts

While the first two Avatar movies based their conflicts on a humans versus Na’vi story, Avatar: Fire & Ash will be the first installment of the franchise in which Na’vi characters will have an antagonistic role. In Fire & Ash, the Ash People are a far more aggressive and war-prone tribe compared to the generally peaceful (but certainly war-capable) Omaticaya and Metkayina tribes seen previously. What isn’t immediately clear is what causes the Ash People to declare war on their fellow Na’vi, or whether they have always been hostile to other Na’vi, but it seems that the franchise’s bloodthirsty villain Miles Quaritch (hosting a Na’vi body since The Way of Water) plays a role in the conflict.

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While Quaritch is seen relatively little in the Fire & Ash trailer, he is shown arriving in the Ash People’s territory, holding up his hands to show that he is unarmed. Another shot shows Quaritch arriving with two unidentified characters in AMP suits. These could suggest that Quaritch, still vengeful over these two defeats at the hands of Jake Sully and his Na’vi family, might be the one to manipulate (or even potentially coerce) the Ash People into declaring war on Jake’s family and the Metkayina tribe. In any case, it seems that Varang is the one most easily won over by what Quaritch puts on the table, as seen in her chilling snippet from Fire & Ash‘s trailer.

Varang Already Seems As Ruthless As Quarritch

Despite the brevity of both Varang and Quaritch’s appearances in the Fire & Ash trailer, the former seems to be the first real contender to be as strong a villain in the Avatar franchise as Quaritch himself. It also bears repeating just how high a bar Quaritch is to meet as a villain after Lang’s performance as the psychotic military commander from the first two Avatar movies. The fact that Quaritch is still a returning villain in Fire & Ash means audiences will have two uncompromising villains side-by-side in the third Avatar movie, and in just one short clip, Varang might actually be even scarier than Quaritch in certain ways.

The fact that Varang not only seems prepared to murder Kiri in cold blood, but her invocation of the Na’vi’s own religion and deities as a taunt to Neytiri indicates how harsh and remorseless she seems prepared to be in Fire & Ash. Whether the story is rooted in a long-running conflict between Na’vi tribes, one that Quaritch sets into motion, or some combination of the two, Varang has already established herself as a terrifying villainess in Avatar: Fire & Ash with her cold delivery of just one line.

Avatar: Fire & Ash will be released in theaters on December 19th.

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James Cameron’s brilliant movie sequels have often caused problems for their franchises, but this won’t be an issue when Avatar: Fire and Ash rolls around this year. Scheduled to hit theaters on December 19, 2025, Avatar: Fire and Ash will be third instalment in the Avatar film series, following on from 2009’s Avatar and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water. Legendary filmmaker James Cameron is leading the charge on all the Avatar movies, meaning this vibrant, relevant, and innovative franchise will avoid a huge problem that has befallen others Cameron has been involved with.

The first teaser trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash released in July 2025, attached to the theatrical releasee of Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The trailer brought us back to Pandora and caught up with Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), Quaritch (Stephen Lang), and more as they come face-to-face with a new tribe of Na’vi, led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Avatar: Fire and Ash seems to be just as, if not more intense and visually-spectacular than its predecessors – surely aided by James Cameron’s continued involvement in the Avatar film series.

James Cameron’s Sequels Often Hurt Major Movie Franchises

Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, James Cameron became a celebrated filmmaker of science fiction and action projects, and became known as the man to call if you wanted a movie sequel done right. Cameron’s feature directorial debut was 1982’s Piranha II: The Spawning, though he’d rather you forget that movie and consider 1984’s The Terminator to be his first. Following The Terminator, Cameron wrote and directed some of the most iconic movie sequels in history, including 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part II, 1986’s Aliens, and 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

James Cameron delivering a strong sequel in an established movie franchise was often something bittersweet. In the cases of the Terminator, Alien, and Rambo franchises, Cameron’s successes were incredibly hard to live up to, and subsequent sequels’ directors failed time and again, so Cameron’s movies ultimately hurt their overall franchises. Following Terminator movies directed by Jonathan Mostow, McG, Alan Taylor, and Tim Miller failed to meet Cameron’s success, while Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection were huge disappointments for Ridley Scott’s original franchise, and all other Rambo movies received a mixed-to-overwhelmingly negative response.

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Aliens are considered two of the strongest movie sequels of all time, thanks to James Cameron’s writing and direction. In 2022, Avatar: The Way of Water joined their ranks as the perfect sequel to the original Avatar movie, receiving a positive response and grossing a whopping total of $2.32 billion at the global box office, making it the third-highest-grossing movie of all time. Avatar: Fire and Ash and the upcoming Avatar 4 and Avatar 5, also to be directed by James Cameron, have the chance to continue this success where Cameron’s previous franchise’s didn’t.

Avatar 3, 4, and 5 Will All Benefit From James Cameron’s Own Direction

The Terminator, Alien, and Rambo franchises surely would have produced many more successful instalments if James Cameron had stuck around after delivering iconic sequels. The Avatar franchise will be proof of this, as all four sequels to the original movie will be co-written and directed by James Cameron, meaning his esteem and experience with prestige filmmaking will be infused into every corner of the vibrant world of Avatar. This means Avatar: Fire and Ash, Avatar 4, and Avatar 5 won’t have the chance to falter under the weight of Cameron’s success, as this will just continue into the franchise’s future.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash is on track to match, or even beat, the success of its two predecessors, and Avatar 4 and 5 are expected to do much the same when they release – currently scheduled for 2029 and 2031, respectively. With animated spinoffs and franchise expansion planned, too, the Avatar franchise will only continue to grow and reach higher and higher successes under Cameron’s watchful eye. With a message of global environment preservation and interpersonal connection between humanity and nature, the Avatar franchise is a passion project for Cameron, so not a series he’ll be abandoning anytime soon.

2009’s Avatar is currently the highest-grossing movie of all time, achieving a box office total of $2.923 billion after its 2021 re-release. Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame from 2019 is a close second with $2.797 billion at the box office, but Avatar: The Way of Water is close behind. Avatar: Fire and Ash, scheduled to hit theaters this December, could blow them all out the water, continuing James Cameron’s success and ensuring the franchise fares well for years to come.

Are you excited for Avatar: Fire and Ash? Let us know in the comments!

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James Cameron will turn 71 years old in just a few weeks, but the Oscar-winning director has no intentions of retiring from filmmaking any time soon. He plans on helming the fourth and fifth installments in the Avatar franchise himself. In an interview with Empire, Cameron shared that he remains in good health and doesn’t see why he wouldn’t be able to continue directing the massive sci-fi epics. Things could change down the line, of course, especially considering how much work goes into making the Avatar films. But for now, Cameron intends to keep calling the shots.

“I mean, there’s no reason not to. I’m healthy, I’m good to go,” Cameron said. “I’m not going to rule it out. I mean, I’ve got to make it in a vigorous way, to handle the kind of volume and energy of the work for another six or seven years. You know what I mean? I might not be able to do that.”

Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 are currently scheduled to be released in 2029 and 2031, respectively. Prior to the release of 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, Cameron addressed the possibility of another director stepping in for those later sequels, mentioning that he has other projects in development he’d like to pursue. Cameron also thought it might be a good idea to have a contingency plan in place in case he was unable to direct Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 considering the massive investment Disney has made in the franchise.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash Trailer Ignites a Fiery War Between Na’vi

Avatar: Fire and Ash, which is directed by Cameron, is gearing up for its release this holiday season. The film’s first trailer was recently officially released online, teasing a Na’vi civil war with the emergence of a tribe known as the “Ash People.” In addition to the live-action films, Cameron is also working on an animated Avatar spinoff that will explore other stories the movies can’t tackle.

It’s encouraging to hear Cameron is up for directing the next two Avatar films himself. The franchise is his original creation, and it would be borderline impossible to find a younger filmmaker who could follow his footsteps. Cameron’s knack for visual storytelling and eye for action is unparalleled, and he’s always looking for ways to push the boundaries of moviemaking technology. He’s also looking to evolve the Avatar franchise from a screenwriting perspective, using Fire and Ash as an outlet to explore the concept of grief and move the movies beyond the trope of “all humans bad, all Na’vi good.” Even those who have been critical of the narratives in the Avatar movies admit the spectacle is unlike anything they’ve seen before. If Cameron’s still calling the shots on future sequels, the next Avatar films will continue to push the needle in more ways than one.

There also may not be a director out there willing to take over for Cameron. The entire film industry knows Avatar is Cameron’s baby through and through, and even a veteran filmmaker might be wary about stepping in. Ron Howard turned down the opportunity to direct Star Wars: The Phantom Menace because he didn’t want to step on George Lucas’ toes. Since Avatar is so distinctly Cameron, another director could be afraid of falling short of what Cameron accomplished and what makes Avatar special. Fortunately, it looks like Cameron is taking a page from contemporaries like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese and will keep making ambitious films well into his elder years.

The post James Cameron Confirms Avatar Future After Fire & Ash (And We’re Excited) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The first trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash has officially been released, giving audiences a stunning glimpse at the third installment of James Cameron’s revolutionary sci-fi epic. The footage introduces a fiery new conflict and a more aggressive tribe of Na’vi, promising to escalate the stakes for Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family. With this much-anticipated sequel on the horizon, Cameron is already planning far into the future, with at least two more sequels, Avatar 4 and Avatar 5, scheduled for 2029 and 2031, respectively. However, the director’s ambitions for the world of Pandora extend even beyond the main film saga. In a recent interview with Empire magazine, Cameron revealed that he is actively developing an animated anthology series designed to explore the unseen corners of the franchise.

“I said [to Disney], ‘Look, I want to do an animated anthology series that’s essentially in the world, but stories that you wouldn’t have expected from that world,’” Cameron explained. “There might even be an animated feature in there – it might be a feature for streaming, or a theatrical feature.” The project would allow for stories that don’t fit within the narrative structure or character focus of the main films, offering a new avenue for world-building. “A good early example is The Animatrix, where they went afield in the Matrix world. These are all great examples of how we can add texture and baroque detail to the world of Avatar.” Cameron elaborated on the potential scope, stating the anthology could focus on “backstory on characters and tangential stuff that happened off-camera within the movies. Who first landed on Pandora? The first expedition. You could go anywhere you want.”

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“We haven’t done much with that yet,” Cameron admitted, clarifying the project’s current status. “We’re still gathering our stories and that sort of thing, and I’ve got to find the boutique filmmakers, the animators, that want to do it.” His comments indicate that the animated series is still in the conceptual phase, with the creative team focused on developing story ideas and identifying the right talent to bring these new Pandora tales to life. Still, with great animated anthologies such as Love, Death + Robots, Star Wars: Visions, and Secret Level being released in the past few years, it shouldn’t be too hard for Cameron to find the right talent to bring his idea to life.

Everything We Know About Avatar: Fire and Ash

Avatar: Fire and Ash picks up after the events of The Way of Water, with the Sully family still grappling with the loss of their eldest son, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters). The film will introduce a significant new threat in the form of the Mangkwan Clan, a volcanic Na’vi tribe also known as the “Ash People,” led by the fierce warrior Varang (Oona Chaplin). Cameron has stated he wants to move beyond the “all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good” dynamic, and the Ash People will represent a darker side of the Na’vi, hardened by years of hardship. The trailer hints that Varang and her fire-wielding clan may even ally themselves with the human RDA forces led by the returning Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang).

The film also promises a significant shift in perspective. Cameron has confirmed that Jake Sully will no longer be the primary narrator. Instead, the story of Fire and Ash will be told through the eyes of his son, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), reflecting the character’s growing importance in the saga. Cameron has further revealed that each subsequent sequel will feature a different narrator, allowing the audience to experience the unfolding events from new viewpoints. As such, the story is set to be a turning point for the Sully family and for Pandora, with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) returning alongside Ronal (Kate Winslet) and the human character Spider (Jack Champion).

Avatar: Fire and Ash arrives in theaters on December 19, 2025.

What part of Pandora’s history would you most like to see explored in an animated series? Let us know in the comments!

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Avatar: Fire and Ash throws its main characters back into all-out war, but sadly, it makes sense for the trajectory this story has been on. The trailer for the movie debuted on Monday, and it’s full of hints of the violence ahead for Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña). To put a finer point on it, Worthington sat down for an interview with Empire, explaining what this tragedy will really mean for his character. Jake Sully came to Pandora as a soldier in the first movie, and his arc was all about leaving warfare behind to find a different path. In Fire and Ash — in theaters on December 19th — he will be forced back to his old ways, not just by enemies, but by his own grief.

Avatar: The Way of Water ended on a bitter note, and almost a cliffhanger, in an emotional sense. Jake and Neytiri’s eldest son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) was killed in the climactic showdown, and director James Cameron told Empire that grieving for Neteyam is the emotional foundation of this new story. “Everybody in this movie is reacting from a place of trauma,” he said. “Everybody. Jake’s processing the death of his son. Lo’ak is processing the death of his brother and his own guilt around that.”

“The peacemaker that Jake was in 2 has changed, because he’s grieving,” Worthington added. “He doesn’t know how to go forward, and so he goes back to the world that he knows, which is soldiering. To attack, to go to war, that’s a comforting place for Jake.”

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Worthington said that the grief forms a wedge between Jake and Neytiri, and he feels it is elegantly done. “Because of Neteyam’s death, there is now a division in that relationship,” he said. “That’s a great design by Jim — how do you split apart the perfect love story? Jake and Neytiri share this painful wound, but they can’t seem to heal each other. So they kind of split, not because they want to, but because they’re just trying to survive within themselves. Jake heads back to battle and Neytiri kind of closes down.”

The trailer gave us a glimpse of the tension between Jake and Neytiri, as he lashed out at her in one scene, warning that she won’t be able to live “in hate” for long. It was a powerful role-reversal for the couple, and it looks like Neytiri may have some unexpressed wrath as well. After threatening to kill Spider at the end of the previous movie, she can now be seen in the fray once again, and she seems to come face to face with the new Na’vi antagonist, Varang (Oona Chaplin).

Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters on December 19th. The two previous movies are streaming now on Disney+.

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James Cameron’s Avatar franchise is going up in flames in its third installment. The first trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash debuted online on Monday, taking us right back to Pandora and right back into war. The trailer includes our first look at some of the new elements of the series such as the new Na’vi tribe known as the “Ash People,” and creatures we haven’t seen before. At the same time, the plot is getting more entangled than ever, and is clearly driven by the characters we’ve come to know over the previous two installments. Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters on December 19th.

The last Avatar movie ended quite dramatically in 2022, so this trailer gives us a bit of a status update on each of our main characters. After her decisive action in Avatar: The Way of Water, it seems like Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) is struggling to return to her peaceful ways, as Jake (Sam Worthington) warns her that she can’t go on living “in hate.” Meanwhile, it seems like their son, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) is feeling displaced, as his family has left Neytiri’s tribe while struggling to integrate with the reef clan.

The leader of the Ash People, Varang (Oona Chaplin), seems to be set up here as a foil for Neytiri, even threatening her and denouncing her goddess in the final shot. We’ve heard from Cameron that the Ash People have been driven to desperation when this movie begins, and they’ll be the first Na’vi to be introduced as antagonists, in a way. He told Empire that Varang is earnest in her love for her tribe, but that doesn’t necessarily make her actions righteous.

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“She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil,” he said. “One thing we wanted to do in this film is not be black-and-white simplistic. Or blue-and-pink simplistic… We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.”

That’s clearly on display in this trailer, even as human characters continue to flood the screen with destruction and mayhem. There are even a couple of shots that likely show us “Recombinants” — the minds of dead humans who have been uploaded permanently into artificial Na’vi bodies. We know that Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) will be back in this installment, and that humanity will renew its assault on Pandora. At the same time, characters like Spider (Jack Champion) and the rebellious scientists add to Cameron’s hope for a more complex story.

Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters on December 19th. In the meantime, the previous two installments are streaming now on Disney+.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash has gotten its first poster and confirmation of when the trailer will be released. James Cameron’s Avatar franchise has dominated at the box office twice now, despite claims that it has no cultural relevance. Avatar: The Way of Water is the third highest-grossing movie of all-time behind the first movie and Avengers: Endgame respectively. However, one could easily chalk that up to people being curious about a sequel to the biggest movie of all-time on top of people looking for a movie to see coming out of the pandemic. The real test of the Avatar franchise’s relevance will be with Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film in the series.

It is coming just 3 years after the last movie and will directly continue the story from The Way of Water. If history repeats itself for a third time, it could be another one of the biggest movies of all-time. Nevertheless, regardless of box office, James Cameron reliably makes great movies and Fire and Ash will likely be no exception. The film is set to introduce a new, darker fire clan that appears to live around volcanos and lava. They are expected to be a more hateful tribe and will likely pose new challenges to our Na’vi heroes.

Avatar 3 Trailer Releases This Week

With that said, the first poster for Avatar: Fire and Ash teases this fire clan. The poster depicts a new character from the clan known as Varang. Not much is known about this character, but she will be played by actress Oona Chaplin. Additionally, it has been confirmed that the first trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash will debut during screenings of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. A post from the official Avatar X page notes that the trailer will be “exclusively” in theaters this weekend, suggesting that it may be uploaded online sometime next week.

The trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash leaked last week, though it was in pretty bad quality. Press got a first look at the trailer this week when attending screenings for The Fantastic Four and it has led to great first impressions online. Additionally, a new update is coming to Ubisoft’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora video game which will allow a new option to play the game in third-person. It seems like Disney is investing a lot in order to generate some hype and enthusiasm for the new Avatar film, which will likely be one of, if not the biggest movie of the year.

Avatar: Fire and Ash will release in theaters on December 19th.

The post Avatar: Fire and Ash Gets First Poster (And We Know When We Can See a Trailer) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The first trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash has leaked online ahead of its official release. Avatar: Fire and Ash is one of the biggest movies on the horizon. Of course, despite some people arguing otherwise, the Avatar series is one of the biggest franchises out there. Across the two movies, it has generated $5.2 billion and the first two movies are in the top 3 highest grossing movies of all-time. They are a huge phenomenon, though the bulk of the money comes from overseas. Still, they’re also very popular here in the United States as Avatar: The Way of Water managed to gross $684,075,767 domestically, which is massive.

Although it took over a decade to get Avatar: The Way of Water released in theaters, James Cameron has a bunch of sequels mapped out. By the 2030s, we will have five Avatar films with plans for more. It’s a big and bold undertaking, but one that could be extremely lucrative if Cameron keeps executing it at a high level and audiences keep showing up. The Avatar films have managed to be a big draw not just because of a great and compelling story, but incredibly immersive 3D technology that transports audiences to Pandora.

Avatar 3 Trailer Leaks Online

With that said, Avatar 3 AKA Avatar: Fire and Ash will debut in theaters this December. Fans have been anxiously awaiting the first trailer and it seems like it’s coming pretty soon. The first trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash has leaked online and it teases a very dramatic and dark story. The film will introduce a new fire tribe that seems to be motivated by hatred, offering a strong contrast to the water-based Na’vi from the previous film. We won’t spoil the trailer here and we’re not going to host it, but it does exist out there on the internet.

Avatar: Fire and Ash‘s trailer is likely to release with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, as it is the next major Disney movie and one of the studio’s biggest movies of the year before Avatar returns. Nothing has been confirmed, though, so take it all with a grain of salt. The trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water was released alongside Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so it stands to reason they’d repeat the same strategy with the new Fantastic Four film. Additionally, Avatar: The Way of Water will be re-released in theaters in October to prepare fans for the third movie.

Avatar: Fire and Ash will release on December 19th, 2025.

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A new teaser image for Avatar: Fire & Ash teases the uncomfortable new relationship between Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and his son Spider (Jack Champion). The still was published by Empire Magazine, along with an excerpt from an interview with Lang about this new adventure for his character. Quaritch has been the face of humanity’s worst impulses on Pandora since this franchise kicked off in 2009, but its long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, took the colonel in an unexpected direction. In the third installment — hitting theaters on December 19th — these two will reportedly have more time to get to know each other, but that may not be what’s best for them or for their relationship, according to Lang.

“They reconnect out of necessity,” the actor said. “Their connection is not a solo connection. There are times when everybody comes together on some level. But, when enemies cooperate, you can be sure betrayal is just around the corner.”

Quaritch seemed to be killed in Avatar, but The Way of Water introduced a new concept called “Recombinants” — the mind of a deceased human implanted permanently in a Na’vi avatar body. In this form, a reborn version of Quaritch returned to Pandora with the support of earth’s Resources Development Administration (RDA) to colonize the moon. He didn’t know he had a living son until he arrived and found Spider living amongst the Na’vi and the remaining human scientists. Spider fought against his father for the entire movie, but in the end, he did save Quaritch from drowning before rejoining the Na’vi.

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James Cameron’s Avatar Finally Reveals the Lost Year in New Tipping Point Series (Exclusive)

“Spider confuses Quaritch,” Lang went on. “But Quaritch wants clarity. There is something about Spider that Quaritch really loves — not a word we associate with him. I think respect and admiration really develop in spades, as well as animosity and manipulation. The relationship will deepen — for better or worse.”

Avatar: Fire & Ash promises to continue the story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) as they seek peace between Pandora’s Na’vi and humanity, while exploring more of the fictional moon’s culture and biome. Since Champion is reprising his role as Spider, we can be reasonably sure that there will not be another big time-skip between movies, as there was a 16-year gap between Avatar and The Way of Water. James Cameron has also said that this movie will push the Na’vi to do some darker things in order to protect themselves this time around, perhaps blurring the lines of morality within this franchise.

More details on this long-awaited threequel are coming in the months leading up to its release. Avatar: Fire & Ash hits theaters on December 19th in the U.S.

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James Cameron’s Avatar films continue to be a box office juggernaut, and that will likely continue with Avatar: Fire and Ash. That said, there’s actually a gap of time between the first two Avatar films that has yet to be explored, and now that lost year will finally be getting a spotlight in a new series from Dark Horse Comics. We’ve got your exclusive first look at Dark Horse Comics’ new series Avatar: The Gap Year – Tipping Point, which will hit later this year, and you can check out your first look in the fantastic cover below.

Avatar: The Gap Year – Tipping Point takes place during the events of the original Avatar and its sequel Avatar: The Way of Water, and comes from the team of writer Ethan Sacks (Star Wars Hyperspace Stories: Codebreaker, Marvel’s Old Man Hawkeye), artist Salvatore Porcaro (Dragonero, CCTVYLLE), colorist Michael Atiyeh (Star Wars Hyperspace Stories: The Bad Batch, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora–So’lek’s Journey), and letterer Michael Heisler (TexArcanum, Avatar: Adapt or Die), and Porcaro and Atiyeh will also be creating covers for the limited series over the course of its 6 issues.

This will be the first time the year between the two hit films has been explored, and not only will fans reunite with some beloved characters, but they will also meet new villains along the way. This story is officially part of the Avatar canon as well, so if you want to know the whole Avatar story, you’ll want to jump in.

“As a fan of James Cameron and his films ever since the Terminator terrorized my 11-year-old imagination, working on this saga has been one of the great professional honors of my lifetime,” confided Sacks. “That this story is part of the official canon that bridges the gap between Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water makes it all the more special. The result is a labor of love by everyone involved and you’ll feel that passion in every panel and on every page.”

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James Cameron’s Avatar 3 Tease Has Us Excited for Fire and Ash’s Story

“For me, it’s a true honor to draw this amazing series, and I’m really excited to be part of it,” said Porcaro. ”It’s a story full of emotion, fascinating characters, and unexpected twists: working on it is both a stimulating challenge and a huge satisfaction. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I enjoy illustrating it.”

“Dark Horse has a long history working with film legend Jim Cameron, and we continue that relationship with Avatar: The Gap Year–Tipping Point,” said Dark Horse founder and CEO, Mike Richardson. “Between Ethan’s incredible storytelling and James Cameron’s vision and immersive world building, these new stories are nothing short of breathtaking.”

Avatar: The Gap Year – Tipping Point #1 (of 6) will hit comic stores on October 22nd for $4.99, and you can check out the first cover from the new series in the image above. You can also find the official description for the series below.

In Avatar: The Gap Year—Tipping Point: After defending their home of Pandora and sending the RDA packing back to Earth nearly fifteen years ago, the Na’vi returned to their peaceful lives. Former Marine Jake Sully, now accepted as Na’vi himself in an Avatar body, has started a family with Neytiri. Despite more than a decade of peace, Jake knows the RDA isn’t done with Pandora yet. And now he’s proven right as they return in force. With his adopted people and his children at stake, Jake will need to lead the Na’vi into war once again, this time facing more firepower and advanced weapons, with new enemies who have just as much to fight for.

Are you excited for the new Avatar series, and what do you hope to see most? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things comics with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!

The post James Cameron’s Avatar Finally Reveals the Lost Year in New Tipping Point Series (Exclusive) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

James Cameron will co-write a film adaptation of Joe Abercrombie’s novel The Devils with the author himself. Cameron announced the news himself on Monday via Facebook, explaining that his production company Lightstorm Entertainment has acquired the rights to the book. This is Abercrombie’s latest novel, hitting shelves just last month, though the author is best known for long-running series like The First Law. Cameron excitedly told fans that he will begin work on The Devils as soon as Avatar: Fire and Ash is finished.

“I’ve loved Joe’s writing for years, cherishing each new read, throughout the epic cycle of the First Law books, especially Best Served Cold (LOVE IT!), and the Age of Madness trilogy,” Cameron wrote. “But the freshness of the world and the characters in The Devils finally got me off my butt to buy one of his books and partner with him to bring it to the screen. I can’t wait to dig into this as I wind down on Avatar: Fire and Ash. It will be a joyful new challenge for me to bring these indelible characters to life.”

Abercrombie gave a statement for the press release as well, saying, “I can’t think of anyone better to bring this weird and wonderful monster of a book to the screen.” The British author’s First Law series spans nine novels and two short story collections, while he has written another trilogy called Shattered Sea as well. The Devils is the first in a new trilogy of novels, published by Tor.

[RELATED: Avatar 3 Will Bring Back the Best Character From The Way of Water]

So far, the only move to adapt Abercrombie’s work to the screen has been a film adaptation of Best Served Cold — a stand-alone novel within the First Law series. Rebecca Ferguson will star as Monza Murcatto, and the movie will be directed by Tim Miller. It is in pre-production, with no recent updates.

Unlike First Law, The Devils is set in a fantastical version of our real world. A race of flesh-eating elves threaten to overrun Europe, which is already infested with other monsters beyond our comprehension. The story follows Brother Diaz, who is tasked with assembling a team of men and monsters to hold off the elf onslaught.

Cameron is currently focused on the third installment of his Avatar series, which is scheduled to hit theaters on December 19th. It takes us back to the distant moon Pandora to live among the Na’vi as they deal with more human visitors. Cameron still plans to make two more movies in this series, with plans to release them in 2029 and 2031, respectively.

For now, Abercrombie’s new novel The Devils is available in print, digital, and audiobook formats wherever books are sold. Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters on December 19th.

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The first look at Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) in the highly anticipated sequel Avatar: Fire and Ash has officially arrived, highlighting significant challenges ahead for the Na’vi warrior. Revealed by Empire magazine, the image showcases Neytiri poised for conflict, her face a mask of anger. Accompanying the visual are new insights directly from Saldaña, who confirms that the crushing grief Neytiri endured after the events of Avatar: The Way of Water festers into a mighty rage in the third film. This emotional turmoil, she explains, will lead Neytiri to interrogate her deepest connections to her family, her people, her land, and even herself. Furthermore, the new information sheds light on Neytiri’s conflict with Varang (Oona Chaplin), the previously announced leader of the mysterious fire-based Ash Clan, whom Saldaña describes as Neytiri’s “match.”

“That pain is seamlessly followed up on,” Saldaña explained, offering her perspective on the aftermath of losing her son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the battle against Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and his forces. “And because it doesn’t really have anywhere to go, and doesn’t go away, rage can also come from it. [The Sullys] are going to be tested as a family. Not only would everything that’s happening compel her to question the bond she has with her husband, but also her bond with herself, her people, her land, and the way the Na’vi are. She’s going to question everything.” This stark assessment suggests Neytiri’s journey in Avatar: Fire and Ash will test her relationship with Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and force her to re-evaluate her place within Na’vi society and her connection to Eywa. Saldaña also stated that in Varang, Neytiri will “meet her match”, suggesting a rival capable of challenging Neytiri on multiple levels, potentially physically and ideologically.

[RELATED: Avatar 3 Will Bring Back the Best Character From The Way of Water]

“Zoe is incandescent in this film,” Cameron stated emphatically during the interview. “With Emilia Pérez, she’s finally getting recognised as the top-tier actor we’ve always known she is. But in [Fire And Ash], that goes way beyond what you’ve seen before.” Cameron’s high praise, referencing Saldaña’s recent Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the acclaimed 2024 film Emilia Pérez, underscores the demanding nature of Neytiri’s arc in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Everything We Know About Avatar: Fire and Ash

Continuing directly from Avatar: The Way of Water, Avatar: Fire and Ash finds the Sully family mourning Neteyam while facing intensified RDA colonization efforts on Pandora, led by General Ardmore (Edie Falco) and a Na’vi-bodied Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang). The plot will involve the Sullys navigating this conflict alongside the Metkayina clan, with the younger generation — narrator Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) — playing key roles, while Spider (Jack Champion) struggles with his dual loyalties. 

The film significantly expands Pandora’s cultures by introducing two new tribes: the volcanic Ash People and the nomadic Wind Traders. Led by Varang (Oona Chaplin), the Ash People represent a “darker aspect” of Na’vi society, hardened by struggle and willing to do “things we would consider to be evil,” according to director James Cameron, who praised Chaplin’s ability to make the adversarial Varang feel “real and alive.” In contrast, the Wind Traders traverse Pandora via massive aerial vessels, connecting disparate cultures like ancient trade caravans.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is scheduled to hit theaters worldwide on December 19, 2025.

What are you most excited to witness in Avatar: Fire and Ash? Let us know in the comments!

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While it took 13 years for the first Avatar sequel to materialize after the original 2009 film, Pandora devotees won’t need to wait nearly as long for another installment in this saga. Avatar: Fire and Ash will seep into theaters on December 19, 2025. This new entry in James Cameron’s massive franchise will introduce audiences to new corners of Pandora, including fire-based Na’vi known as the Ash People. Anticipation is already running high for the feature, which will see David Thewlis and Oona Chaplin join the Avatar series.

There are many elements that are clear about Fire and Ash, including how it will allegedly have a heftier runtime than Avatar: The Way of Water. However, a key element about Fire and Ash is still shrouded in mystery. When will the first trailer be released to the public?

Select attendees of events like CinemaCon 2025 have seen footage, but when will the general public get to finally see a Fire and Ash trailer?

When Did The First Trailers For Past Avatar Movies Drop?

Perhaps some clarity on this subject can be found in when the trailers for the first two Avatar movies dropped. Back in 2009, audiences didn’t get a very first glimpse at Avatar until late August 2009, when a trailer premiered with Inglourious Basterds. Premiering a trailer for a big original blockbuster just four months before its release was a gamble. For comparison’s sake, fellow 2009 tentpole 2012 dropped a teaser trailer an entire year before its November 2009 bow. Obviously, though, Avatar’s marketing approach worked.

Avatar: The Way of Water kicked off its marketing campaign much farther away from its theatrical debut. The first teaser premiered exclusively in theaters with the May 2022 blockbuster Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Eschewing the traditional online premiere platform for a new movie trailer ensured that audiences knew The Way of Water was something made for the big screen, not a streamer. Plus, putting the teaser on a massively anticipated movie like Multiverse of Madness ensured plenty of eyeballs would be glued to this tease of the next Avatar movie.

Given the precedent of Multiverse of Madness, it would make sense to believe that Disney/20th Century Studios would premiere the Fire and Ash teaser on theatrical showings of this year’s early May Marvel movie, Thunderbolts*. However, right now, that doesn’t look to be the plan. Instead, Disney appears to be attaching trailers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Predator: Badlands to Thunderbolts*. Disney didn’t have a deluge of other live-action movies in the year’s second half to promote back in 2022, which made it easier to launch a December blockbuster’s marketing campaign early. With a crowded slate of new Disney releases between now and December, Fire and Ash’s teaser will have to wait.

[RELATED: James Cameron’s Avatar 3 Tease Has Us Excited for Fire and Ash’s Story]

So When Will The Fire And Ash Teaser Debut?

It’s doubtful Fire and Ash‘s teaser will just drop on any movie. Given that this is one of 2025’s most anticipated films, one can expect its trailer to debut on one of summer 2025’s biggest titles rather than just floating by on screenings of The Last Rodeo. Right now, July 2025 has the two most optimal candidates for a teaser launch. Disney could reserve the trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps or the Mouse House could debut the teaser two weeks earlier on Superman.

Both movies are guaranteed to draw in plenty of moviegoers to large-format and IMAX screenings, which make them ideal as the next motion pictures that could house a Fire and Ash teaser. Wherever this teaser drops, expect it to remain a theatrical-exclusive event for a few days, much like The Way of Water’s teaser. If any teaser trailer should be experienced first and foremost on the biggest screen possible, it’s the first footage from a new James Cameron movie.

This venue inevitably will let moviegoers appreciate every detail of Cameron’s Fire and Ash vision while instilling in viewers the sense that this impending tentpole is a must-see big-screen event. Pandora fans are undoubtedly getting impatient for a Fire and Ash teaser by now, especially since the teaser will drop closer to Ash’s release date compared to when Water’s teaser premiered. However, given Cameron’s track record, it’s highly likely that whatever this teaser trailer contains will blow away all expectations and dispel impatience.

Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19, 2025.

The post When Will We See The First Avatar: Fire and Ash Trailer? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The fan-favorite tulkun Payakan will make a triumphant return in Avatar: Fire and Ash with an expanded role that promises to delight audiences. VFX supervisor and executive producer Richard Baneham has confirmed to Empire magazine that the rebellious space whale introduced in Avatar: The Way of Water will play a significantly larger part in the third installment of James Cameron’s epic saga. Payakan, who formed a special bond with Jake Sully’s (Sam Worthington) middle child Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) in the previous film, captured viewers’ hearts with his tragic backstory and heroic actions during the climactic battle against the Resources Development Administration (RDA). The outcast tulkun’s unexpected popularity has influenced the creative team to extend his presence in Avatar: Fire and Ash, cementing his status as one of the franchise’s most compelling non-humanoid characters.

“He’s turned out to be one of the most popular characters,” Baneham explained in the interview. “The reaction emboldened us to go forward and play Payakan at the very highest level.” This confirmation suggests that the bond between Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and the giant marine creature will continue to evolve, potentially playing a crucial role in the narrative as the inhabitants of Pandora face new threats from both human invaders and the newly introduced Ash People tribe. Furthermore, Payakan’s increased prominence indicates that the underwater elements that made The Way of Water visually stunning will remain an important aspect of the third film, even as the story expands to include the volcanic territories of the Ash People.

[RELATED: Avatar: Fire & Ash Run Time Update Will Divide Fans]

“There’s a really great dynamic between them,” Baneham revealed when discussing the introduction of Ta’nok, a female tulkun who is similarly ostracized from tulkun society. This relationship opens up possibilities for exploring tulkun social structures in greater depth, including the introduction of clan leaders known as Matriarch and Patriarch. “Matriarch is a very interesting character,” Baneham noted. “She’s in full regalia. We’re using rings and tattoos as a way to suggest history beyond what we’re seeing.” These additions demonstrate Cameron’s commitment to building a richly detailed alien ecosystem with complex interpersonal relationships that extend beyond human and Na’vi characters, creating a more immersive experience for viewers returning to Pandora.

Everything We Know About Avatar 3

Avatar: Fire and Ash is the middle chapter in Cameron’s planned five-part saga and aims to dramatically expand the world of Pandora by introducing two new Na’vi tribes. The most significant addition is the Ash People, a volcano-dwelling clan led by Varang (Oona Chaplin) that embraces violence and power, challenging the previously established portrayal of Na’vi as uniformly peaceful protectors of nature. Cameron has described Varang as a complex character shaped by her people’s struggles, suggesting a more nuanced approach to morality in this installment. “She’s hardened by that,” Cameron explained in previous interviews. “She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil.”

The story of Avatar: Fire and Ash picks up after the events of The Way of Water, with Jake Sully and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) still processing the devastating loss of their eldest son, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters). The Sully family must navigate grief while continuing their resistance against the intensifying colonization efforts of the RDA, led by General Frances Ardmore (Edie Falco) and the resurrected Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) in his Na’vi avatar form. Meanwhile, the Sully children — Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), Lo’ak, and Tuktirey “Tuk” (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) — must adapt to new family dynamics while joining the fight to protect their adopted home. Lo’ak’s continuing friendship with Payakan will likely provide an emotional core for his character development.

In addition to the Ash People, Fire and Ash will introduce the Wind Traders, a nomadic Na’vi tribe that travels across Pandora using massive flying creatures resembling hot air balloons. Cameron has compared them to “the camel caravans of the Spice Road back in the Middle Ages,” highlighting their crucial role in connecting Pandora’s diverse cultures. This expansion of the Na’vi civilization demonstrates Cameron’s intent to develop a richer and more complex vision of Pandora, moving beyond the binary morality of humans versus Na’vi presented in the first two films.

Avatar: Fire and Ash will make its theatrical debut on December 19, 2025. Avatar 4 is scheduled for December 21, 2029, while the concluding chapter, Avatar 5, is set for December 19, 2031.

Are you excited to see Payakan return in Avatar: Fire and Ash? How do you think his storyline will connect with the new Na’vi tribes? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post Avatar 3 Will Bring Back the Best Character From The Way of Water appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Avatar: Fire and Ash director James Cameron teases the film’s run time, which could prove to be polarizing for viewers. Speaking with Empire, Cameron opened up about the film’s development, explaining how development on the Avatar sequels progressed over time. While going over everything they had in mind, Cameron and his collaborators realized they had material for more installments than they initially envisioned. This led to the conception of Fire and Ash, which stemmed from ideas that were originally for 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water. Cameron said Fire and Ash is shaping up to be the longest Avatar film yet.

“In a nutshell, we had too many great ideas packed into act one of movie 2,” Cameron said. “The [film] was moving like a bullet train, and we weren’t drilling down enough on character. So I said, ‘Guys, we’ve got to split it.’ [Movie] 3 will actually be a little bit longer than movie 2.”

Neither of the previous two Avatar movies are brief. The 2009 original has a run time of 162 minutes, while The Way of Water was over three hours long (192 minutes). Throughout his career, Cameron has become known for protracted run times; 1984’s The Terminator was the last feature of his to clock in under two hours.

[RELATED – Everything We Know About Avatar: Fire and Ash (Including the New Na’vi)]

Ahead of Avatar: Fire and Ash‘s premiere this December, Cameron has been outlining his approach for the film’s story. He intends for the movie to be an in-depth exploration of grief as Jake and Neytiri try to process the unspeakable tragedy they went through in The Way of Water. Cameron is also looking to turn franchise tropes on their head by introducing a new Na’vi clan that’s more antagonistic in nature.

Audiences won’t learn what Fire and Ash‘s official run time is for a while, but if Cameron’s comments are any indication, it sounds like it will be well over three hours. On one hand, that gives Cameron plenty of time to flesh out all of the movie’s new elements. Between continuing threads from The Way of Water and bringing two new Na’Vi tribes into the picture, Fire and Ash will have a lot on its plate, and it’ll be important for these aspects to be properly developed. A shorter run time would run the risk of the film feeling rushed, which would be underwhelming. That said, a common critique of the Avatar franchise is that the films work better as big-screen spectacle than pieces of compelling storytelling. Should Fire and Ash fail to engage audiences on an emotional level, the movie could drag before it reaches its conclusion.

A longer run time could also have an impact on Fire and Ash‘s box office prospects, as theaters may be limited with how many screenings they can book each day. That would mean fewer opportunities for the film to generate revenue, but Cameron has proven time and time again that audiences shouldn’t doubt his ability to craft a crowd-pleasing blockbuster that turns a healthy profit. If his track record is anything to go by, Fire and Ash should be a big winner at the box office when it opens over the holiday season, regardless of how long it is.

The post Avatar: Fire & Ash Run Time Update Will Divide Fans appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Pandora’s vast world is about to become even more enchanting with the introduction of a spectacular new Na’vi clan that literally floats through life. In Empire’s revealing first look at Avatar: Fire and Ash, arriving December 19, 2025, former Harry Potter star David Thewlis appears as Peylak, the charismatic leader of the Wind Traders (Tlalim Clan). These unique Na’vi have mastered the art of traveling across Pandora’s landscape using massive jellyfish-like creatures, bringing a fresh dimension to the franchise’s already impressive array of aerial sequences. While previous films showcased the Na’vi soaring through colorful skies on their trusty ikran mounts and swimming through bioluminescent oceans, this new clan promises to deliver an entirely different kind of aerial spectacle that could revolutionize how we view transportation in James Cameron‘s ever-expanding alien landscape.

The newly revealed character design showcases Peylak in striking attire, most notably featuring an eye-catching sunset-colored cloak that underwent significant revisions during development. “Originally, the cloak was a little more rugged, a little more rustic,” costume designer Deborah L. Scott tells Empire, explaining that director Cameron pushed for greater grandeur in the clan’s appearance. The result is a visual feast that promises to bring a new energy to Pandora’s growing universe.

“They’re upbeat, happy, colourful,” Scott revealed, adding that “when they come into our movie, everyone’s excited to see them. It’s like the circus is in town.”

[RELATED – Everything We Know About Avatar: Fire and Ash (Including the New Na’vi)]

Thewlis, known for his portrayal of Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter series, reportedly brings distinctive flair to the role, with Scott praising his “great posture” and declaring him “absolutely stunning in the movie.” Thewlis isn’t the only new face joining the franchise. Michelle Yeoh and Oona Chaplin are also set to appear, with Yeoh taking on the role of human scientist Dr. Karina Mogue, while the returning cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, and Sigourney Weaver.

The introduction of the Wind Traders represents another innovative expansion of Pandora’s rich ecosystem, following the oceanic exploration in The Way of Water. This third installment, which has already completed 95% of its filming alongside The Way of Water, promises to showcase new biomes and Na’vi clans while continuing to push technological boundaries.

Cameron’s efficient approach to filming multiple sequels simultaneously suggests a confident vision for the franchise’s future. With The Way of Water having earned more than $2.3 billion at the box office, expectations are high for this next chapter. The film joins an impressive roster of upcoming releases, with Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 tentatively scheduled for 2026 and 2028, respectively.

Avatar: Fire & Ash opens theaters on December 19th.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash star Zoe Saldaña sheds further light on the film’s story, hinting at a very emotional arc for the Sully family. In an interview with Variety, the Oscar-nominated actress was asked about what audiences can expect when the latest installment in the Avatar franchise opens this December. Understandably, Saldaña couldn’t get into too much detail, but she teased that Fire and Ash will push Jake and Neytiri to their limits as they grapple with the aftermath of the events of Avatar: The Way of Water. She implied that there will be some tough choices ahead for the characters.

“It’s going to be an emotional roller coaster,” Saldaña said. “The way The Way of Water ended was unimaginably painful for the Sully family. Now, they have to make really strong decisions. Do they stay united and find common ground, or do they go their separate ways? And God knows what’s going to happen to the existing children.”

In Avatar: The Way of Water, Jake and Neytiri suffer the loss of their eldest son, Neteyam, who died during the film’s climactic battle. Previously, Saldaña has discussed how this story thread will be explored in the third film, explaining that the Sully family will need to find a way to persevere amidst the ongoing conflict on Pandora. Director James Cameron has promised Fire and Ash will not sugarcoat its exploration of grief, which sets it apart from other Hollywood tentpoles.

[RELATED – Everything We Know About Avatar: Fire and Ash (Including the New Na’vi)]

As the Avatar franchise continues, Cameron is looking to take greater risks in the storytelling department, promising that Fire and Ash takes things “to a level of character and intrigue” audiences haven’t seen before. In addition to tapping into a stronger emotional core, the director is finding ways to riff on the series’ established tropes. The introduction of the new Ash Clan was his way to deviate from what he called the “‘all humans are bad, all Na’Vi are good’ paradigm.”

The Sully family is committed to fighting the RDA, but after losing one child, continuing that struggle will not be easy. Jake and Neytiri’s dynamic has been an integral part of the Avatar films from the beginning, and it would be a devastating blow if the characters decide to part ways in Fire and Ash. A twist like that would play into Cameron’s desire to highlight grief; everyone mourns in their own way, and perhaps things become too much for Neytiri to bear and she opts to leave Jake. Even if they eventually reunite, this would make for some compelling drama and it would be fascinating to see how the characters react to that situation.

Given the strength of Jake and Neytiri’s love, it seems unlikely they would separate for good. But the two may need to walk their own individual paths as they process everything that’s happened and figure out what to do next. It’s common for sequels to split the main characters up, allowing them to grow and change on their own before they’re brought back together. That formula could enhance Avatar: Fire and Ash‘s emotional core; after spending time apart from each other and learning more about themselves, a Jake and Neytiri reunion towards the end of the film would make for a strong payoff. Whatever happens, it sounds like Avatar 3 will have plenty of substance to balance out the sci-fi spectacle.

The post We’re Worried About Jake & Neytiri After Zoe Saldaña’s Latest Avatar 3 Tease appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Avatar: The Way of Water dominated the global box office in December of 2022, with box office earnings exceeding $2.3 billion, becoming the third highest-grossing film in history. Unsurprisingly, Disney is still committed to director James Cameron’s epic franchise, with three more movies scheduled to hit theaters in the upcoming years. The Avatar saga continues its groundbreaking journey with Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third chapter in Cameron’s planned five-part narrative. The threequel promises to take fans to unexplored corners of Pandora, the sci-fi planet where native people fight greedy humans to preserve their natural resources.

Avatar: Fire and Ash also introduces two new Na’vi tribes that will dramatically expand our understanding of Pandora’s culture: the Ash People and the Wind Traders. The Ash People, in particular, are a volcano-dwelling Na’vi clan led by the enigmatic Varang (Oona Chaplin), representing a darker aspect of Na’vi society that embraces violence and power. This tribe challenges our previous understanding of Pandora’s indigenous peoples as purely noble beings.

What’s the Plot of Avatar 3?

Avatar: Fire and Ash directly follows Avatar: The Way of Water, exploring how Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) cope with the loss of their eldest son, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters). As Earth continues its rapid decline, the Resources Development Administration (RDA) intensifies its efforts to colonize Pandora, led by General Frances Ardmore (Edie Falco) and the resurrected Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) in his Na’vi avatar form. So, we are bound to see more brutal battles as the native forces of Pandora resist the oppression of the human colonizers.

While still mourning, the Sully family will navigate these new challenges and strengthen their connection to the Metkayina clan, the ocean tribe introduced in The Way of Water. The Sully children Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), and Tuktirey “Tuk” (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) must adapt to new family dynamics, joining the fight to save Pandora. At the same time, the Sully’s adopted human son, Miles “Spider” Socorro (Jack Champion), will struggle with his divided loyalties between humanity and the Na’vi.

Who Are the New Na’vi?

Fire and Ash introduces two distinct Na’vi tribes. The Ash People, the franchise’s first major non-human antagonists, are a volcano-dwelling Na’vi clan. According to James Cameron, their leader, Varang, is a complex character shaped by her people’s struggles. “Varang is the leader of a people who have gone through an incredible hardship. She’s hardened by that,” Cameron explained. “She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil.”

Cameron praised Chaplin’s performance as Varang, noting that its depth became even more apparent after seeing the completed Wētā FX animation: “She’s so good that I didn’t quite appreciate how good her performance is until we got the Wētā animation back. She’s an enemy, an adversarial character, but [Chaplin] makes her feel so real and alive.” The director emphasized that Fire and Ash aims to move beyond simple moral dichotomies: “We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.”

The second new tribe, the Wind Traders, offers a stark contrast to the Ash People. These nomadic Na’vi travel across Pandora using massive flying creatures that resemble hot air balloons. Cameron compares them to “the camel caravans of the Spice Road back in the Middle Ages,” highlighting their crucial role in connecting Pandora’s various cultures. The director’s enthusiasm for these traders is evident, particularly when discussing their aerial vessels: “If you’ve got any nautical blood in your veins, you’ll want to be on their ship.”

Avatar: Fire and Ash Cast and Crew

James Cameron returns to direct Avatar: Fire and Ash, working alongside his longtime producing partner Jon Landau – who tragically passed away in June. An accomplished writing team wrote the script, including Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman, and Shane Salerno. The production team has spent years developing new technology to bring Cameron’s expanded vision of Pandora to life, particularly focusing on the volcanic regions that serve as home to the Ash People.

The core family dynamic will continue to evolve, with Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña anchoring the narrative as Jake and Neytiri. Their family has grown more complex, with Sigourney Weaver expanding her groundbreaking performance as their teenage daughter Kiri, while Britain Dalton’s Lo’ak will take over as the film’s narrator. Trinity Jo-Li Bliss returns as their youngest daughter, Tuk, and Jack Champion continues his role as Spider, their adopted human son who bridges two worlds.

The enemies list has been expanded significantly for Fire and Ash. Stephen Lang’s Colonel Quaritch remains a threat, now joined by Edie Falco’s General Ardmore and Giovanni Ribisi’s returning administrator, Parker Selfridge. Matt Gerald reprises his role as Corporal Wainfleet, while Brendan Cowell returns as the ruthless Captain Scoresby. The film introduces Oona Chaplin as Varang, the leader of the Ash People, and David Thewlis as Peylak, a character whose arc will span multiple sequels.

Finally, the Metkayina clan maintains their crucial presence, with Kate Winslet and Cliff Curtis returning as power couple Ronal and Tonowari. Their children, played by Bailey Bass (Tsireya) and Filip Geljo (Ao’nung), continue their relationships with the Sully family, while Duane Evans Jr. returns as the skilled hunter Rotxo. The supporting cast is rounded out by returning favorites CCH Pounder as Mo’at, Joel David Moore as Dr. Norm Spellman, Jemaine Clement as Dr. Ian Garvin, and Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel.

Is There a Trailer for Avatar 3?

While no public trailer has been released yet, D23 2024 attendees were treated to exclusive preview footage that showcased the film’s expanded scope. The preview revealed stunning sequences of Neytiri navigating through volcanic terrain on her banshee, alongside glimpses of the Ash People’s distinctive culture and architecture. These early looks suggest a darker, more intense chapter in the Avatar saga. 

Following the marketing strategy employed for The Way of Water, the first official trailer is anticipated to debut in late spring or early summer 2025. This release will likely coincide with a major Disney theatrical release (Marvel’s Thunderbolts?), ensuring maximum exposure for this highly anticipated sequel.

When Is Avatar: Fire and Ash Releasing in Theaters?

Avatar: Fire and Ash will make its theatrical debut on December 19, 2025, maintaining the franchise’s tradition of December releases. This date represents the culmination of a complex production schedule that has weathered nine delays, including the most recent postponement due to the Writers Guild of America strike.

Fire and Ash marks the middle chapter of Cameron’s expansive five-part Avatar saga, with subsequent entries already in active development. Avatar 4 is scheduled for December 21, 2029, while the concluding chapter, Avatar 5, is set for December 19, 2031.

The post Everything We Know About Avatar: Fire and Ash (Including the New Na’vi) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Avatar: Fire and Ash director James Cameron has opened up more about the film’s story, explaining how it will be different from other Hollywood blockbusters. Speaking with Empire (via Collider), the filmmaker revealed that Fire and Ash and its forthcoming sequels will not shy away from dealing with grief. “I think what commercial Hollywood doesn’t do well is deal with grief the way human beings really deal with it,” Cameron said. “You know, characters get killed off, and then in the next movie everybody’s happy again. I’ve lost a lot of people, friends and family members, over the last six or eight years, and it doesn’t work that way.”

Elaborating, Cameron stated that grief can “[make] you just kind of depressed and f***ed up.” While Avatar: Fire and Ash will still be a big-screen spectacle full of entertaining action sequences, Cameron intends for the remaining installments to deal with human emotions such as grief in a “naturalistic, novelistic way” through how the Sully family processes what happens to them. “Now, of course, they’re not human, but this is a movie for us, by us, right? Science-fiction is always just a big mirror of the human condition,” Cameron said.

In 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, Jake Sully and Neytiri suffer a devastating loss when their oldest son, Neteyam, dies during the film’s climactic battle. Star Zoe Saldaña has suggested this story thread will carry over into Fire and Ash, which finds Jake and Neytiri “on this journey of acceptance” as they attempt to figure out “who they are and what they must be for each other.” According to the actress, the characters are figuring out the best way to protect their family as they continue to fight against the RDA on Pandora.

[RELATED – Predicting the Biggest Movies at the Box Office in 2025]

With Avatar: Fire and Ash, Cameron is looking to push the franchise’s storytelling forward. He’s introducing new Na’vi tribes, such as the Ash People, to break the established “‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.” Now that the Avatar series is on its third installment, the director feels comfortable to start to “riff on it and twist it and turn it” from a narrative perspective. While he admits the risks may not pay off, he believes it’s important to take some chances. “[I]if you’re not making brave choices, you’re wasting everybody’s time and money.”

Avatar: Fire and Ash‘s tackling of grief sheds light on Cameron’s earlier comments about his storytelling approach. When audiences sit down to watch the movie over the holiday season, they’ll be expecting plenty of Cameron’s trademark bombastic setpieces, but could be caught off-guard when they see a deep study of complex emotions. It’s important to note Cameron has stressed Fire and Ash is not a “depressed and f***ed up” movie, so it will still feature the crowd-pleasing moments viewers want to watch on the big screen. However, the decision to focus on Jake and Neytiri’s grief should add more dramatic weight to the proceedings and give the movie a relatable emotional core. It sounds like Cameron is using his personal experiences as a foundation for this topic, which should make it feel genuine and authentic.

The Avatar films have rarely earned accolades for their writing (Cameron did receive a Best Original Screenplay nomination from the Writers Guild Awards for the original). That hasn’t stopped them from becoming massive box office hits, but as the series continues, it would be nice if moviegoers found a strong emotional through-line to connect with. By using Jake and Neytiri as avatars (no pun intended) to explore “the human condition,” Cameron could be crafting films that balance breathtaking spectacle with substance that has the power to move viewers. Perhaps Fire and Ash will help some audience members process any grief they’re experiencing at the time.

The post James Cameron Promises Avatar: Fire and Ash Explores Something No Other Hollywood Movie Has appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Avatar: Fire and Ash director James Cameron has shed some light on his storytelling approach for the upcoming sequel, and it’s an update that should be exciting for fans. In an interview with Empire, the Oscar-winning filmmaker discussed what audiences should expect when the third Avatar film opens in theaters this December. In addition to “really clever action set-pieces” (which is a given considering Cameron’s pedigree), it sounds like Avatar: Fire and Ash is aiming to tell a bold narrative. “What excites me as an artist who recently turned 70 and has kind of done all that stuff is not only the opportunity to get to do it again, but to get to a level of character and intrigue you haven’t seen before in an Avatar movie,” Cameron said.

Elaborating, Cameron indicated that he’s aiming to take some risks regarding the movie’s story. “We’re just starting to riff on it and twist it and turn it,” he said. “It’s a tricky thing. We could be getting high on our own supply here, and everybody who looks at it goes, ‘F***, that’s not what I signed up for.’ But if you’re not making brave choices, you’re wasting everybody’s time and money. That alone is not sufficient to create success, but it’s necessary.”

Avatar: Fire and Ash plot details are largely being kept under wraps, but it has been confirmed the film introduces two Na’vi tribes: the Ash Clan and the Wind Traders. The former represents a considerable change for the franchise, as the Ash Clan will be an antagonistic force. They are led by Varang (played by Game of Thrones‘ Oona Chaplin), who will go to any length to help her people. Cameron described the character as a way for the series to “evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.”

[RELATED – Everything We Know About Avatar: Fire and Ash (And When You Can Watch It)]

Franchise star Zoe Saldaña has also touched on Avatar: Fire and Ash‘s story, teasing an emotional journey for the Sully family as they mourn the loss of Neteyam, Jake and Neytiri’s oldest son (who died in Avatar: The Way of Water). “Jake and Neytiri are on this journey of acceptance, of accepting who they are and what they must be for each other and how they’re going to push forward to keep their family safe,” she said.

The Avatar films are renowned for being technical marvels, boasting revolutionary visual effects and action sequences that demand to be seen on the biggest screen possible. However, a common critique of the franchise is that the unrivaled spectacle largely overshadows what is arguably an underwhelming narrative. The first Avatar in particular was criticized for what was perceived as an unoriginal story that drew heavily from previous works like Pocahontas and Dances With Wolves. While there are viewers who enjoy Cameron’s extensive world-building and love characters like Kiri and Payakan, most would probably agree that storytelling is one area where Avatar can improve. Fortunately, it sounds like Cameron is aware of that.

A case can be made that the first couple of Avatar movies benefitted from having relatively simple stories, helping ease viewers into the world of Pandora. But with at least two more sequels planned after Avatar: Fire and Ash, now is the time to find intriguing ways to keep things fresh. The presence of an antagonistic Na’vi tribe has the potential to add rich complexity and nuance to the proceedings, and it will be exciting to see what other “brave choices” Cameron made when crafting the film. Throughout his career, he’s never been one to play things safe, and it’s encouraging he’s actively trying to challenge himself and the audience moving forward. Hopefully, Avatar: Fire and Ash‘s bold risks pay off, setting the stage for even more twists in the next film.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash will introduce two new Na’vi tribes later this year, but the latest sneak peek will make them feel close already. In a new interview with Empire, director James Cameron gave some new details on the “Ash Clan” and the “Wind Traders,” along with some new concept art of both of their designs. He even described a new character, Varang, and her motivations as the leader of the Ash Clan. It sounds like Cameron is planning to tease this movie out little by little over the next few months before Avatar: Fire and Ash premieres on December 19th, 2025.

The third installment of Cameron’s epic space fantasy takes us to new regions on the moon Pandora, introducing us to our first big non-human antagonists, the Ash Clan. Their leader is played by Oona Chaplin — best known for playing Talisa Stark on HBO’s Game of Thrones. Cameron said that Chaplin’s performance “is so good that I didn’t quite appreciate how good her performance is until we got the Wētā animation back. She’s an enemy, an adversarial character, but [Chaplin] makes her feel so real and alive.”

“Varang is the leader of a people who have gone through an incredible hardship. She’s hardened by that,” Cameron explained. “She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil. One thing we wanted to do in this film is not be black-and-white simplistic. We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.”

[RELATED: Everything We Know About Avatar: Fire and Ash (And When You Can Watch It)]

Meanwhile, the Wind Traders roam Pandora with the help of massive flying creatures depicted in concept art like hot air balloons. Of them, Cameron said, “They’re nomadic traders, equivalent to the camel caravans of the Spice Road back in the Middle Ages. And you know, they’re just fun. Like all Na’vi, they live in a symbiosis with their creatures.”

“If you’ve got any nautical blood in your veins, you’ll want to be on [their] ship,” the director added excitedly. Cameron has been working on Avatar for nearly three decades now, and it’s clearly a labor of love. Fans feel the weight of those years as well, having anticipated a sequel from 2009 to 2022. Now that the series is back in motion, it looks like it will move along much more quickly.

Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters on December 19th, 2025. Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water are both streaming now on Disney+.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash will be a heartbreaker, according to star Zoe Saldaña. In a new interview with Deadline published this weekend, the actress teased the plot of the upcoming movie, without giving too much away. She seemed to be warning fans that the sci-fi epic is not going to shy away from grief and the toll it can take on a family.

Fair warning: there are spoilers for Avatar: The Way of Water ahead! “The way that we left the Sully family, they’re mourning heavily the loss of their child,” Saldaña said. “So I do believe that that will carry out a great deal in the third installment of Avatar. Jake and Neytiri are on this journey of acceptance, of accepting who they are and what they must be for each other and how they’re going to push forward to keep their family safe.”

Avatar is known for its visual spectacles and its cutting edge technology, but Saldaña praised director and co-writer James Cameron for the story at the heart of it all. She said: “I love the fact that in the core of this entire saga is a beautiful love story, and I love that Jim really wrote that for them. But it’s not going to be easy. They’re not always going to meet eye to eye, and I just hope that they keep each other safe. That’s my hope for them.”

[RELATED: Everything We Know About Avatar: Fire and Ash (And When You Can Watch It)]

Saldaña’s insight here might be the most we’ve heard about the story of Fire and Ash so far. We know that the story will once again take us to a different place on Pandora and introduce us to a new group of Na’vi with a different culture — again with an elemental theme based on their habitat. we also heard from producer Jon Landau that there might be some antagonistic Na’vi in this movie for a change. Cameron said that the third movie has greater character depth than the first two installments.

If Cameron’s Avatar is known for anything else, it’s the long wait between films. The first movie debuted in 2009, and despite Cameron’s very vocal promises for a sequel, it took until 2022 for The Way of Water to arrive. Now that the gears are in motion again, it seems like things will move faster and more consistently now. Avatar: Fire and Ash is currently scheduled for release on December 19, 2025. Two more untitled sequels are in the works, and are scheduled for 2029 and 2031, respectively.

Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water are both streaming now on Disney+. Avatar: Fire and Ash is scheduled to hit theaters on December 19, 2025.

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With 2024 winding down, the year’s big box office winners are clear. Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Wicked, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and It Ends With Us were just a few of the many movies that flourished over these 12 months of cinema history. Even with a pair of labor strikes from 2023 and other external factors inhibiting the amount of movies that hit theaters in 2024, the annual domestic box office is headed for a solid end-of-year total. Even better, 2025 is poised to be (knock on wood) the first post-March 2020 year at the domestic box office that resembles something like a pre-2020 “normal.”

With studios cramming the calendar with new titles and multiple fresh releases opening over the same weekend, 2025 is shaping up to be a mighty year at the box office. But what titles might make the most money? That’s what we’re gathered here today to explore. 2025 could be a year for the history books if things go right, and these projected biggest movies of 2025 will play a critical role in this year living up to expectations.

Avatar: Fire and Ash

In 2022, Avatar: The Way of Water returned audiences to Pandora after 13 years of the franchise being M.I.A. from theaters. Despite years of jokes about the original Avatar leaving “no pop culture impact,” The Way of Water grossed over $2 billion worldwide to become one of the biggest movies ever globally. It’s a foregone conclusion Avatar: Fire and Ash will be one of 2025’s most lucrative titles, especially since key foreign territories have more readily returned to moviegoing since December 2022. In other words, the box office run of Fire and Ash will have all the might of an Ikran, Eywa, and Payakan combined.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Ironically, the 2025 Marvel Studios property with the most box office potential is the one starring characters that have technically never appeared in this saga (at least this universe’s forms). The Fantastic Four: First Steps has several advantages at its back, including a late July release date that will allow it to run throughout August with minimal competition. That approach certainly worked for Deadpool & Wolverine and early August juggernaut Guardians of the Galaxy. Plus, if First Steps gets positive buzz, it could skyrocket at the box office, like the first solo Venom and Deadpool movies, over excitement surrounding seeing comic book characters finally “done right” on the big screen. Keep an eye on The Fantastic Four: First Steps to finally give Marvel’s First Family a box office sensation.

[RELATED: Is 2024 the Worst Year for Superhero Movies?]

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Sure, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning failed to hit lofty box office expectations. However, its domestic haul was still only 20% below its predecessor. With a more competition-free Memorial Day weekend (not to mention exclusive control over IMAX screens for three weeks), Mission: Impossible -The Final Reckoning has a good shot at restoring the saga’s box office prowess. If Reckoning comes anywhere close to being as big as the franchise’s most successful installments, then Ethan Hunt is going out in style.

Michael

If Elvis could reach $150+ million domestically, the mind staggers to think what a movie about Michael Jackson like Michael will do in October 2025. The King of Pop is coming to the big screen in what’s allegedly a flashy, crowd-pleasing fashion that’ll give audiences plenty of razzle-dazzle and reprises of their favorite songs. Jackson’s appeal as a musician was global. Michael is bound to similarly resonate globally, producing one of the year’s biggest hits in the process.

Zootopia 2

Moana 2 has officially brought Walt Disney Animation Studios back to the level of box office powerhouse. Next Thanksgiving, the label will try to keep the momentum going with another sequel, Zootopia 2. Though not as heavily streamed over the last eight years as Moana, Zootopia actually made more money than that musical back in 2016 with over $1 billion worldwide. This box office sensation returning with a new adventure is bound to excite audiences. Plus, since, unlike Moana 2, Zootopia 2 was always made with the big screen in mind, its long-term word-of-mouth could be exceedingly better than 2024’s big Disney Animation smash.

Wicked: Part 2

This one’s a no-brainer for being a 2025 box office smash. With Wicked on track to become only the second live-action musical in history to exceed $400 million domestically, audiences are clearly stoked to spend more time with Elphaba and Glinda. Wicked: Part 2 won’t have as many feel-good bubbly songs as “Dancing Through Life” and “Popular,” so it likely won’t inspire as many rewatches as its predecessors. However, it’s still guaranteed to be one of 2025’s largest hits, especially given the euphoric word-of-mouth greeting the first Wicked. Here is the rare “part one” movie that leaves audiences excited for a follow-up rather than feeling frustrated over getting only half a film.

The post Predicting the Biggest Movies at the Box Office in 2025 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The first concept art for Avatar: Fire and Ash debuted at D23 Brasil last week, and fans are increasingly concerned with its apparent similarity to the other Avatar franchise – The Last Airbender. There are five new images of Pandora, featuring new flying organisms and Na’vi settlements. However, after the presentation fans are beginning to feel like these movies are encroaching on the elemental themes and motifs of The Last Airbender.

Avatar introduced us to the forest-dwelling Na’vi, and The Way of Water showed us how they live on the coast as well. The concept art for Fire and Ash gave us our first glimpse of the the “Ash People,” which director James Cameron called a “reflection of the worst side of Na’vi.” Their home seems to be built on an ashy terrain, surrounded by bare stone with dragon-like creatures roosting overhead. Cameron teased “New cultures and settings and biomes and more of Pandora,” but some commenters complained that this was similar to Aang’s tour of the four great nations.

Much of this commentary was tongue-in-cheek, with fans still feeling bitter that Cameron’s blockbuster franchise took the title Avatar and overshadowed Nickelodeon’s fantasy franchise. After that, any other similarities are bound to cause some eye-rolling, and this exploratory format hits a little too close to home. Seeing various tribes of Na’vi living in different settings with cultures built around their natural elements reminds fans of the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes and Air Nomads.

It sounds like Fire and Ash may introduce us to the Na’vi equivalent of the air nomads as well. Two concept images show giant creatures flying through the sky – apparently through a combination of balloon-like appendages and wings. So far, the details of the plot are under wraps, so there’s no telling how these various nations will interact. Commenters are speculating about what will draw Jake Sully and Neytiri away from the Metkayina clan in the first place. The Way of Water showed that leaving the forest for the sea was a huge adjustment for their family, and apparently an unusual one for the Na’vi.

While Cameron’s franchise is finally moving along, The Last Airbender franchise also has some big news on the way. Original series creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino are heading up Avatar Studios, a division of Nickelodeon to create animated series and movies in the Avatar universe. Their first project is a movie with the working title Aang: The Last Airbender, which will feature adult versions of the main characters Aang, Katara, Toph and Sokka. Dave Bautista has signed on to play the antagonist. The movie currently has a release date of January 30, 2026.

That’s not long after Avatar: Fire & Ash, which is slated to premiere on December 19, 2025, only in theaters. Hopefully, fans will be able to keep all these settings straight in their heads.

The post Avatar: Fire & Ash Concept Art Revealed (And Everyone Has the Same Criticism) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Director James Cameron has become a prolific part of the film industry, from his landmark work on Titanic to his current endeavor on the Avatar film franchise. Today, it was revealed that Cameron will direct his first new non-Avatar project in decades — Last Train From Hiroshima. The project will be a new film based on Charles R. Pellegrino’s 2015 book Last Train From Hiroshima, as well as his forthcoming 2025 book Ghosts of Hiroshima. While an exact production schedule or release date has not been confirmed, Cameron plans to work on the film as soon as his production schedule on the Avatar movies allows it. The film will partially follow the true story of a Japanese man during World War II who survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima, got on a train to Nagasaki, and then survived the nuclear explosion in that city.

“It’s a subject that I’ve wanted to do a film about, that I’ve been wrestling with how to do it, over the years,” Cameron told Deadline. “I met Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a survivor of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, just days before he died. He was in the hospital. He was handing the baton of his personal story to us, so I have to do it. I can’t turn away from it.” 

Will James Cameron Direct Avatar 4 and 5?

In a recent interview with https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/james-cameron-interview-avatar-3-alien-romulus-terminator-oceanxplorers-1235972175/#recipient_hashed=4099e28fd37d67ae86c8ecfc73a6b7b652abdcdb75a184f8cf1f8015afde10e9&recipient_salt=f7bfecc7d62e4c672635670829cb8f9e0e2053aced394fb57d9da6937cf0601a&utm_medium=email&utm_source=exacttarget&utm_campaign=Breaking%20News&utm_content=543196_08-12-2024&utm_term=273056The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron confirmed that he does currently plan to direct the currently-untitled Avatar sequels, instead of potentially passing them on to a new helmer.

“Sure,” Cameron revealed. “Absolutely. I mean, they’re going to have to stop me. I got plenty of energy, love doing what I’m doing. Why would I not? And they’re written, by the way. I just reread both of them about a month ago. They’re cracking stories. They’ve got to get made. Look, if I get hit by a bus and I’m in an iron lung, somebody else is going to do it.”

What Will Avatar 3 Be About?

Avatar: Fire and Ash will not only continue to the narrative of The Way of Water, but will introduce a new Na’vi clan of volcano-dwelling “Ash People.” As the cast of The Way of Water revealed to ComicBook late last year, the prospect of what could be explored in the film is really enticing. 

“It was about 2015 when I was pushing my wife who was pregnant at the time,” franchise star Sam Worthington explained. “So we were pushing around a room with all these visuals, and the visuals was of this family story mapped out over this saga of however movies. It wasn’t even movies at that point. It was just this story that Jim [Cameron] was kind of campfire telling me and her, and I’m thinking, ‘I’m about to have a kid and about to follow this kind of adventure of a family was kind of had a weird parallel symmetry.’ I think that was very exciting that if we got the opportunity to tell the whole saga, that would be great.”

The post James Cameron Announces His First Non-Avatar Movie Since 1997 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

With a juggernaut performance at the box office and multiple Oscar nominations, the Avatar franchise has become something special. The films, which are brought to life by James Cameron, have transported audiences to the alien world of Pandora for two decades now, and the third film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is on the horizon for 2025. Cameron has confirmed that he has plans for at least two more films in the franchise, and we now know at least one cast member who will be returning for them. Sigourney Weaver, who portrayed Grace Augustine in Avatar and Kiri in Avatar: The Way of Water, recently spoke about her work on the franchise with Deadline. When asked if she will make some sort of appearance in the currently-untitled fourth and fifth films, Weaver confirmed, “Yes, I think I’m allowed to say that.”

“I remember reading the script of the first Avatar and reading about these blue people with pointed ears and tails riding on these creatures through floating mountains … I couldn’t imagine any of it being shot,” Weaver said of her work on the franchise. “I honestly couldn’t imagine how he would ever make a film that looked like this and had these elements. But I’m so glad for Jim, and for the success of these films, which has meant we’re able to keep making them. I just finished working on Avatar 3 earlier this month, actually, and I think the series will continue to grow and be more and more hard-hitting…”

“They’re written,” Weaver said of Avatar 4 and 5. “We know what they are. They’re really good. But Jim is still finishing three. It’s nice to look forward to them.”

What Will Avatar 3 Be About?

Avatar: Fire and Ash will not only continue to the narrative of The Way of Water, but will introduce a new Na’vi clan of volcano-dwelling “Ash People.” As the cast of The Way of Water revealed to ComicBook, the prospect of what could be explored in the film is really enticing. 

“It was about 2015 when I was pushing my wife who was pregnant at the time,” franchise star Sam Worthington explained. “So we were pushing around a room with all these visuals, and the visuals was of this family story mapped out over this saga of however movies. It wasn’t even movies at that point. It was just this story that Jim [Cameron] was kind of campfire telling me and her, and I’m thinking, ‘I’m about to have a kid and about to follow this kind of adventure of a family was kind of had a weird parallel symmetry.’ I think that was very exciting that if we got the opportunity to tell the whole saga, that would be great.”

“I’ve read two and three, so, I know what happens in two and three and, yeah, I can say that… Well, at the table read we had two and three, which was like, you know, basically this much. And we had, we spent two whole days reading the whole movie,” Jack Champion teased.

Avatar: Fire and Ash will be released exclusively in theaters on December 19, 2025.

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Avatar director James Cameron has a disappointing update for fans: you’re going to have to wait a while before you see Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh on Pandora. 

While at the D23 Expo James Cameron confirmed to EW that Michelle Yeoh is NOT in the next Avatar film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, which will be released in late 2025. So when WILL we see Yeoh join the Avatar franchise? 

“Michelle Yeoh won’t be in 3. She’s in 4 and 5,” Cameron said. “So that got a little bit misreported.”

So there you have it: Michelle Yeoh’s Avatar character will be making its debut in Avatar 4, and will be featured again in Avatar 5. Filming on Avatar: Fire and Ash was already completed; we got our first hints that Avatar 4 had begun filming back in 2022, with a recent update in July that filming had resumed after breaks for things like the 2023 Hollywood Strikes, and other logistical holdups. 

Cameron indirectly confirmed that Avatar 4 filming is underway again, by revealing that Michelle Yeoh is soon scheduled to film her portion of the movie: 

“She will be coming in soon to do her part, which is an interesting, fun character,” Cameron revealed. “We love Michelle. She was always a movie star, but she’s blown up into a huge, huge phenomenon. I look forward to working there.”

Yeoh was announced to be playing scientist Dr. Karina Mogue – a role that good be benevolent, diabolical, or a little bit both. Yeoh has earned major fan cred for her anti-hero role in the Star Trek Universe, a formidable mother in Crazy Rich Asians, and other such roles. Either way, most Avatar fans will be thrilled to see her join the franchise… whenever the eventually see her on screen. 

Cameron also explained that there’s a ticking clock hanging over the franchise’s production schedule – namely, the rapidly maturing young cast that was introduced in Avatar: The Way of Water. They have forced Cameron to shoot as much of these films as he could, as fast as he could, even while finishing and releasing each new sequel:

“This whole thing has been planned for years and years,” Cameron said. “The scripts were all written years ago, through the end of movie 5. So we’ve been working on parts of 4 even as we go along, mostly because we’ve got this young cast. We had to shoot them all while they were still young.”

Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water are streaming on Disney+. 

The post Avatar: James Cameron Confirms Long Wait for Michelle Yeoh’s Franchise Debut appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Avatar franchise has become a global juggernaut, transporting audiences everywhere into the world of Pandora. At last weekend’s D23 Expo, fans were treated to the official title and first concept art for the upcoming third film in the franchise, which we now know is titled Avatar: Fire and Ash. Even before Fire and Ash makes its debut in theaters, there have also been some early rumblings about fourth and fifth Avatar films, and it sounds like Cameron won’t be stepping away from the franchise anytime soon. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron confirmed that he does currently plan to direct the currently-untitled Avatar sequels, instead of potentially passing them on to a new helmer.

“Sure,” Cameron revealed. “Absolutely. I mean, they’re going to have to stop me. I got plenty of energy, love doing what I’m doing. Why would I not? And they’re written, by the way. I just reread both of them about a month ago. They’re cracking stories. They’ve got to get made. Look, if I get hit by a bus and I’m in an iron lung, somebody else is going to do it.”

What Will Avatar 3 Be About?

Avatar: Fire and Ash will not only continue to the narrative of The Way of Water, but will introduce a new Na’vi clan of volcano-dwelling “Ash People.” As the cast of The Way of Water revealed to ComicBook late last year, the prospect of what could be explored in the film is really enticing. 

“It was about 2015 when I was pushing my wife who was pregnant at the time,” franchise star Sam Worthington explained. “So we were pushing around a room with all these visuals, and the visuals was of this family story mapped out over this saga of however movies. It wasn’t even movies at that point. It was just this story that Jim [Cameron] was kind of campfire telling me and her, and I’m thinking, ‘I’m about to have a kid and about to follow this kind of adventure of a family was kind of had a weird parallel symmetry.’ I think that was very exciting that if we got the opportunity to tell the whole saga, that would be great.”

“I’ve read two and three, so, I know what happens in two and three and, yeah, I can say that… Well, at the table read we had two and three, which was like, you know, basically this much. And we had, we spent two whole days reading the whole movie,” Jack Champion teased.

Avatar: Fire and Ash will be released exclusively in theaters on December 19, 2025.

The post Avatar: James Cameron Walks Back Plans for Another Director to Take Over appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Straight from the Horizons: Disney Experiences Showcase at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, Disney has confirmed that the world of Avatar is growing here on Earth. The Disney California Adventure park will expand and become home to a new Avatar-themed area which draws inspiration from Avatar: The Way of Water and the other upcoming sequels (Avatar 3 recently confirmed its title as Avatar: Fire and Ash). Described as “a dynamic, intense and emotional experience,” the new area will not only allow guests to not only explore Pandora’s ecosystems but send them on a ride that lets them see the seas and all the beasts that live there, such as the whale-like Tulkun.

“We’re taking our guests to a whole new location on Pandora as all of you know our land in Florida is set in a rainforest amongst the floating mountains in the Mo’ara Valley which to me feels just like we’re stepping into the first Avatar film, “Ali Rubenstein, Executive Global Management-Creative Development, Walt Disney Imagineering said on stage at the event. “Our new destination we’re inspired by the second movie The Way of Water well as the upcoming Fire and Ash, and future Avatar films. It will be at a scale and at a level that is worthy of these epic stories one thing I’m particularly looking forward to is an innovative new attraction that will bring all the action all the excitement and all the wonder of Avatar to life in a completely new and thrilling way.”

She continued, “We’ll invite our guests to take the adventure of a lifetime as we join an excursion in search of majestic natural wonders that can only be found on Pandora. Along the way we’ll discover dense forests full of incredible animals and bioluminescent Flora taking us all the way to the wide open seas of Pandora but while this world can be beautiful if we lose our way it can also be dangerous. this is going to be a dynamic intense and emotional experience on a grand scale that we know our guests, all of you, are going to love.”

Just before the new Pandora expansion for Disney’s California Adventure was revealed however, a special tribute was made to Avatar series producer Jon Landau, who passed away on July 5th of this year. 

“I just want to take a moment to recognize one member of the Lightstorm team, Jon Landau, who passed away last month,” Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro. “As the producer of both Avatar films, John was instrumental in helping Disney Imagineers bring Pandora to life. John helped us create our Avatar theme land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom I actually had the chance to work closely with him as we developed that land and I was so fortunate to experience his passion and creativity firsthand. John loved the Disney Parks he loved working with Imagineersand cast members and he was so excited to be working with Imagineers on our next Avatar experience.”

Avatar: Fire and Ash is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 19, 2025.

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At D23 today, Disney revealed that the third installment of James Cameron’s mega-hit Avatar series will be titled Avatar: Fire and Ash. The title seems like a mirror image of the 2022 title Avatar: The Way of Water, and likely reflects the heightened stakes for the third installment. The mood onstage was enthusiastic, but a bit more subdued than it otherwise might have been, owing to the recent passing of producer Jon Landau, whose name was projected on screens at D23. Avatar: Fire and Ash will be in Landau’s memory.

Very few details were given up at the presentation, although the official Avatar social media accounts have released a new logo and title treatment. You can see that here:

James Cameron’s Avatar was a shock to the cinematic system when it was released in 2009, opening modestly but continuing to make solid money for weeks and months until it became the highest-grossing film of all time. More than a decade later, Avatar: The Way of Water finally landed in theaters in 2022, and nearly did it again, earning over $2 billion, and making Cameron the director of three of the four highest grossing movies ever (Avatar at #1, Avatar 2 at #3, and Titanic at #4).  

“It’s just a continuation of the epic,” Cameron said back in February. “You’ll see new environments, new characters. The characters that you know and love will be challenged even more, and go through some trials and tribulations. I think it’s going to be a tougher ride than A2, in a good way.”

We won’t be waiting a decade for this sequel — they shot the second and third movies back to back — but Cameron explained in the interview that the process…well, it isn’t quick and easy. It’s actually a really bespoke process that involves building tools that operate to his exacting standards, and then using them over a course of years.

“We spent about eight years developing the tools,” Cameron explained. “We released the first Avatar in 2009, it played into 2010, we got busy. We didn’t start shooting the second and third film together until September of 2017, and that intervening time period was creating a whole new tool set to do water, to do the characters, with 100% accuracy to the emotion, the performance of the actors, so it was quite a technical development, and then it’s just a long, painstaking process. The capture itself goes fairly normally, like about at the pace of a normal movie, and then after that there’s a very long post-production tail where you make everything look 100% real.”

Avatar 3 is currently expected to be in theaters in December of 2025.

The post Avatar 3 Name Revealed at D23 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Avatar and Titanic producer Jon Landau is dead at the age of 63. The Wrap reports that the blockbuster filmmaker had cancer and was undergoing treatment. James Cameron was Landau’s close collaborator for years. Together, the duo would rack-up multiple films to top the highest-grossing projects of all time list. Just Titanic and Avatar alone would be worth noting. But, there are hosts of others across his career. Landau was a vice president of Twentieth Century Fox back in the 1990s. He worked on fan-favorites like Die Hard 2, Honey I Shrunk the Kids and Dick Tracy. (A lot of Millennials are just realizing the presence this man had on their lives as film fans by going back through the catalog.)

Before the successes of Titanic and Avatar, Landau was born to film producers Ely and Edie Landau. The Hollywood fixture also went to USC’s School of Cinematic arts during his younger days. On social media, one of the first people to memorialize Landau was Frances Fisher. Of course, she played a massive role in Titanic. Back in the 1990s, the staggering success of that film helped pave the way for the blockbuster theater landscape we enjoy today. The family has not issued a statement and ComicBook will provide updates as they become available.

Landau Was Working on The Avatar Series and So Much More

The producer always seemed to be working on something related to one of these big franchises. Just last year, people were asking about the status of Alita: Battle Angel. Over the years, Landau’s science fiction adventure has amassed something of a cult following among fans of the genre and the manga. In an era where everything is on the table for revisiting, Landau told ScreenRant that they were exploring that possibility as recently as last year. He always seemed passinate about the host of characters that he created with James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez.

“We’re working on it,” Landau shared. “I think what we’ve learned from Avatar is how much more facial nuance and subtlety that we can get into characters that we want to be emotional and emote that are humanoid. Alita would not have been possible, but for what we did on Avatar. Avatar: Way of Water would not be what it is but what we did for Alita. And now let’s put that back and give it back to Alita. We’re talking to Robert and talking to Rosa and all is good.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends in this time.

The post Jon Landau, Avatar & Titanic Producer Dead at 63 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

It looks like we’re one step closer to returning to the world of Pandora. In a recent post on Instagram, Avatar alum Joel David Moore shared new photos from the New Zealand production of Avatar, while reminiscing about his work on the franchise. Moore has portrayed Norm Spellman in both 2009’s Avatar and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water. It is safe to assume that Moore’s production update is for Avatar 4, which has already begun filming and had been set to resume filming earlier this year following the 2023 Hollywood strikes.

“Heading back to Wellington NZ is always so nostalgic,” Moore’s post reads. “Been coming here for 17 years making this franchise, seeing familiar faces, friends, putting the hard work in, it’s like a home away from home at this point. The family has grown, but the work flow and mission is always the same. Thankful for my #Avatar fam and can’t wait for you to see what’s next! (Last pic is a flashback of me Sig Sam M Rod and our amazing kiwi crew from 17 yrs ago) ”

What Will Avatar 3 Be About?

Avatar 3 will not only continue to the narrative of The Way of Water, but will introduce a new Na’vi clan of volcano-dwelling “Ash People.” As the cast of The Way of Water revealed to ComicBook late last year, the prospect of what could be explored in Avatar 3 is really enticing. 

“It was about 2015 when I was pushing my wife who was pregnant at the time,” franchise star Sam Worthington explained. “So we were pushing around a room with all these visuals, and the visuals was of this family story mapped out over this saga of however movies. It wasn’t even movies at that point. It was just this story that Jim [Cameron] was kind of campfire telling me and her, and I’m thinking, ‘I’m about to have a kid and about to follow this kind of adventure of a family was kind of had a weird parallel symmetry.’ I think that was very exciting that if we got the opportunity to tell the whole saga, that would be great.”

“I’ve read two and three, so, I know what happens in two and three and, yeah, I can say that… Well, at the table read we had two and three, which was like, you know, basically this much. And we had, we spent two whole days reading the whole movie,” Jack Champion teased.

Will There Be an Avatar 4?

Initially, it was announced that Avatar would have as many as five sequels, and director James Cameron has already indicated that he shot a lot of footage for the forthcoming Avatar 4. While there’s no indication of that sequel’s plot, it sounds like it might exceed expectations.

“I can’t tell you the details, but all I can say is that when I turned in the script for 2, the studio gave me three pages of notes,” Cameron previously explained to Collider. “And when I turned in the script for 3, they gave me a page of notes, so I was getting better. When I turned in the script for 4, the studio executive, creative executive over the films wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy f-ck.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are the notes?’ And she said, ‘Those are the notes.’ Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way, right?”

Avatar 3 will be released exclusively in theaters on December 19, 2025.

The post Avatar Star Confirms Filming Has Resumed on Future Sequels appeared first on ComicBook.com.

James Cameron’s Avatar was a shock to the cinematic system when it was released in 2009, opening modestly but continuing to make solid money for weeks and months until it became the highest-grossing film of all time. More than a decade later, Avatar: The Way of Water finally landed in theaters last year, and nearly did it again, earning over $2 billion, and making Cameron the director of three of the four highest grossing movies ever (Avatar at #1, Avatar 2 at #3, and Titanic at #4). In an interview on the red carpet at this weekend’s Saturn Awards, the filmmaker teased that the upcoming third installment in the franchise will be “a tougher ride” than The Way of Water, and will present totally new challenges to the characters.

Cameron, on hand to accept awards for Best Science Fiction Film, Direction, Screenwriting and Visual Effects at the genre-friendly awards show, told interviewers that he was happy to keep playing in the Avatar universe for a while. Asked to tease the third movie, he gave vague — but intriguing — sound bytes. 

“It’s just a continuation of the epic,” Cameron told Mama’s Geeky. “You’ll see new environments, new characters. The characters that you know and love will be challenged even more, and go through some trials and tribulations. I think it’s going to be a tougher ride than A2, in a good way.”

You can see the clip below.

We won’t be waiting a decade for this sequel — they shot the second and third movies back to back — but Cameron explained in the interview that the process…well, it isn’t quick and easy. It’s actually a really bespoke process that involves building tools that operate to his exacting standards, and then using them over a course of years.

“We spent about eight years developing the tools,” Cameron explained. “We released the first Avatar in 2009, it played into 2010, we got busy. We didn’t start shooting the second and third film together until September of 2017, and that intervening time period was creating a whole new tool set to do water, to do the characters, with 100% accuracy to the emotion, the performance of the actors, so it was quite a technical development, and then it’s just a long, painstaking process. The capture itself goes fairly normally, like about at the pace of a normal movie, and then after that there’s a very long post-production tail where you make everything look 100% real.”

Avatar 3 is currently expected to be in theaters in December of 2025.

The post James Cameron Says Avatar 3 Will Be a Tougher Ride appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Avatar 4 is set to start filming sooner than expected. Sam Worthington told PEOPLE that one month from now, the movie will be back to work. It’s no surprise that James Cameron wants to get cracking on future entries after the success of Avatar: The Way of Water. He’s actually been tucking away footage for the third entry in the franchise where he can. Worthington said, “We go back to work on it in a month and it’s big. It’s bigger than you can imagine.” That should hype people who were enamored with the scale of the second Avatar movie. However, that release date for Avatar 3 is still a very big ways off. 

A few weeks ago, Cameron also spoke to PEOPLE about how the third Avatar movie was progressing. He said that the project was “right on track.” Obviously, because of the actors and writers strikes, production had to pause over the summer. That little break moved the release date for Avatar 3 all the way to December 19 2025. (That’s basically an entire year from the proposed December 2024 release date the project previously held.) However, if the Avatar franchise has taught observers one thing, its that audiences will wait for these movies. People came out in droves to see Avatar: The Way of Water in droves and that’s unlikely to change next time out.

Avatar 4 Is Truly Wild

According to Director James Cameron, avatar for a set to be truly wild. When approaching the executives at 20th Century Studios, the beloved filmmaker delivered his vision for the sequel. After a spirited “Holy f***” from the executive present, the plan for the movie marched forward. Collider asked Cameron about the plans for another trip to Pandora. Fans have been waiting in suspense for a while now and Avatar 3 isn’t even scheduled to release until deep in 2025.

“I can’t tell you the details, but all I can say is that when I turned in the script for 2, the studio gave me three pages of notes,” Cameron told the outlet. “And when I turned in the script for 3, they gave me a page of notes, so I was getting better. When I turned in the script for 4, the studio executive, creative executive over the films wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy f-ck.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are the notes?’ And she said, ‘Those are the notes.’ Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way, right?”

So Much of Avatar Is In Production

Avatar‘s big franchise plans continue to move forward at a wild clip. Cameron told Variety that parts of 3 have already been shot. So, the filmmaker is getting the lead out when it comes to moving the story of Jake Sully and his family forward. Will this apply to the fourth entry? It sure seems like it.

“2 is fully in the can,” Cameron revealed at the time. “We have a working cut that we’re filling in the visual effects within. I feel pretty confident with that film. 3 is still a bit shadowy. It’s way too long. I haven’t really turned my energy into a disciplined cutting process on that yet. But I know I’ve got the performances. That’s the important thing. I’ve done all the capture. I’ve done most of the live-action shooting. I still owe a little bit on some of the adult characters. We were more concerned with the kids aging out.”

“We mixed the schedules for 2 and 3 together, based on the types of scenes and the environments. I said, let’s just treat it like it’s a six-hour miniseries and we’re only going to go to Frankfurt once,” he would add. “We’re going to shoot all the scenes from 2 and 3 at the same time. That was more or less the motif. Actor availability was an issue as well. Anything that had to be done with a specific actor, we did all the scenes for 2 and 3 together — and a little bit of 4. Because once again, I had to shoot the kids out. They’re allowed to age six years in the middle of the story on page 25 of movie 4. So I needed everything before then, and then everything after, we’ll do later.’

When do you think we’ll get Avatar 4? Let us know down in the comments!

The post Avatar 4 Star Says Filming Restarts Soon appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The sprawling nature of the Avatar franchise and the inventive storytelling demonstrated by filmmaker James Cameron time and time again means that even the most devout fan is largely in the dark about what the future could hold for the franchise. With Avatar 3 currently expected to land in theaters in December of 2025, Cameron recently confirmed that the follow-up to that film, Avatar 4, will feature a more substantial jump forward in time than seen in other films. The initial plan for Avatar films was to release them every two years, and while it will have been three years between Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar 3, there will reportedly be a four-year wait until Avatar 4 in 2029.

“We did the capture on [Avatar 3] and the live-action photography on 3 as an intermingled production with [Avatar: The Way of Water], and we even did part of [Avatar 4] because our young characters are all going to have a big time jump in movie 4,” Cameron confirmed to People. “We see them and then we go away for six years and we come back. And so the part where we come back is the part we haven’t shot yet. So we’ll start on that after 3 is released.”

The wait between the debut Avatar and The Way of Water was 13 years, so a three-year wait for the third installment will come as a relief to audiences. The filmmaker also confirmed that the nature of the franchise means that he was able to obtain a significant chunk of footage for the upcoming sequel, which he also described as being a more straightforward process than The Way of Water.

“3 is actually much more straightforward than [The Way of Water],” Cameron confirmed of shooting. “2, we got hit with the pandemic in the middle of it and we were interrupted, and then we had to reboot and reboot the production and all that sort of thing. And it was a scramble to get it done.”

As cemented with The Way of Water, future sequels are set to explore Na’vi tribes that are connected to other elements, with the nature of filming complex water-based scenes making for more complications than other elements. Much is unknown about both Avatar 3 and Avatar 4, but these comments from Cameron are sure to excite fans.

Stay tuned for updates on the Avatar sequels.

Are you looking forward to the upcoming installments? Let us know in the comments!

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A newcomer to Avatar: The Way of Water is returning for the franchise’s third outing in a couple of years. According to Avatar helmer James Cameron, Kate Winslet’s Ronal will appear in Avatar 3. Not just that, but Winslet’s apparently been putting in some serious, real-world work as she prepares for her role.

“When you see her [Winslet] doing that purification ritual to try to revive Kitty in the film and some of the stuff that she’s going to do in movie three, that’s based on actual practice,” the director said in a new chat with PEOPLE Magazine.

Winslet previously told ComicBook.com the franchise was attractive to her because of the tribal-based storytelling of her character’s underwater tribe.

“He just asked me and I think I admired the first Avatar. Loved it so much in the same way that we all did. And you know, Jim is an incredible writer of strong female roles and he was one of the first to be really doing that,” Winslet explained. “And when he described Ronal to me and said that she was the female, sort of goddess warrior leader of the water tribe, I just thought, I mean, to me, that’s proper sort of music to my ears. So, the idea of playing someone like that who was a leader in that way, the water element was very important to me. I love water. It’s a big part of my life, always has been, and to work with Jim and the other cast, I was just very excited.”

What is Avatar 3 about?

Little is known about Avatar 3, though Cameron previously admitted studio executives had little in the way of notes for the filmmaker after reading the scripts for both the threequel and Avatar 4.

“I can’t tell you the details, but all I can say is that when I turned in the script for 2, the studio gave me three pages of notes,” Cameron explained to Collider. “And when I turned in the script for 3, they gave me a page of notes, so I was getting better. When I turned in the script for 4, the studio executive, creative executive over the films wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy f-ck.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are the notes?’ And she said, ‘Those are the notes.’ Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way, right?”

The first two Avatar films are now streaming on Disney+ while Avatar 3 is still set for release on December 19, 2025.

The post Avatar 3: James Cameron Confirms Fan-Favorite Character Returning for Sequel appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Avatar producer Jon Landau is doing a geeky deep-dive into Na’vi culture with his latest interview, which is promoting the imminent release of the new franchise game Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which invites players to “Become Na’vi” in a “first-person, action-adventure game set in the open world of the Western Frontier of Pandora.” 

Naturally, the opportunity for Avatar fans to jump into the world of the film, and inhabit the character of a Na’vi person, raises a lot more specific questions about the nature of the aliens,  their culture, and of course, their big, blue, phsyiology. 

Can Na’vi Grow Hair? 

“Yeah I would say some Na’vi clans can,” Landau explained to ComicBook.com. “Again: I think it’s a cultural thing. It’s a biological thing. And we want to present different clans – but I would say ‘Yes,’ Na’vi can grow facial hair.” 

Josh Izzo, the Executive VP of Franchise Development for Avatar directly contradicted Landau in his own statement, claiming that “the answer is no,” when it comes to Na’vi facial hair. That said, Izzo did distinguish between the native Na’vi people of Pandora and avatar body transfers like Jake Sully (Sam Worthington): 

“Now Jake, though – and if you notice this it’s very interesting in the film [Avatar: The Way of Water] – Jake has biological children and one adopted child. His oldest son Neteyam and youngest daughter Tuk have more of their mother in them, whereas Lo’ak … the middle son, has more of him. Because Lo’ak has four fingers and a thumb like Jake as an avatar – but also Lo’ak has eyebrows, whereas the other two… biological children do not. And neither does Neytitri. So Jake has eyebrows, and Jake can – to a degree –  grow different types of hair, because they are a biological mix of human and Na’vi DNA, whereas core, on-moon Na’vi don’t have that gene. And Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), their adopted daughter, she also has eyebrows because she was born from an avatar.”

With the amount of insight that Izzo just provided, it seems pretty clear now that John Landau isn’t necessarily in touch with all the details about the Na’vi. James Cameron and the Avatar franchise team clearly thought-out the details to such a degree that even the rules of facial hair growth seem to follow an established path of logic and consideration – and that’s before a team of animators has to make all that hair growth (or non-growth) like 3D photorealistic. 

Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water are both streaming on Disney+. 

The post Avatar’s Jon Landau Answers Crucial Franchise Question: Can Na’Vi Grow Facial Hair? (Exclusive) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

At one point or another, James Cameron suggested the title of his third Avatar movie might be Avatar: The Seed Bearer. For those who raised an eyebrow at the peculiar name, you need not worry. Avatar franchise producer Jon Landau tells us that’s definitely not the case. In no way, shape, or form will the threequel be titled Avatar: The Seed Bearer according to the producer.

“I’m qualified to tell you that that is not the title for Avatar 3,” Landau told us at an event in support of the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora video game. “That’s what my Wikipedia page says? That is getting changed tonight!”

Little is known about the plot of the third Avatar film, other than the idea that it will introduce an entirely new Na’vi clan, one that resides in a volcanic locale on Pandaora.

Cameron confirmed a rumored list of titles back in 2019. At the time the list also included Avatar: The Way of Water, a name that we now know was real. “I can neither confirm nor deny,” Cameron told ET before relenting. “All right, here’s what I’ll tell ya. Those titles are among titles that are in consideration. And no final decisions have been made yet.”

Will There Be an Avatar 4?

Given just how popular both Avatar films have been, both critically and commercially, Disney’s likely not giving up on the Avatar franchise anytime soon. In fact, Cameron has already indicated that he shot a lot of footage for the forthcoming Avatar 4. There have also been reports Cameron’s working on Avatar 5 as well.

“I can’t tell you the details, but all I can say is that when I turned in the script for 2, the studio gave me three pages of notes,” Cameron explained to Collider. “And when I turned in the script for 3, they gave me a page of notes, so I was getting better. When I turned in the script for 4, the studio executive, creative executive over the films wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy f-ck.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are the notes?’ And she said, ‘Those are the notes.’ Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way, right?”

The first two Avatar films are now streaming on Disney+ while Avatar 3 is still set for release on December 19, 2025.

The post Avatar 3: Jon Landau Debunks Title Rumor for New Movie (Exclusive) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

We’ll have to wait a little while longer for the world of Pandora to return to the big screen. In a recent interview with TV New Zealand, Avatar franchise director James Cameron revealed what the status of Avatar 3 is, hinting that the film is maintaining a good momentum amid its years of post-production. According to Cameron, Avatar 3 is still on track to make its previously scheduled theatrical debut of December 19, 2025.

“We’re into a very hectic two years of post production right now, so it’ll be Christmas of ’25,” Cameron confirmed.

What Will Avatar 3 Be About?

Avatar 3 will not only continue to the narrative of The Way of Water, but will introduce a new Na’vi clan of volcano-dwelling “Ash People.” As the cast of The Way of Water revealed to ComicBook.com late last year, the prospect of what could be explored in Avatar 3 is really enticing. 

“It was about 2015 when I was pushing my wife who was pregnant at the time,” Sam Worthington explained. “So we were pushing around a room with all these visuals, and the visuals was of this family story mapped out over this saga of however movies. It wasn’t even movies at that point. It was just this story that Jim [Cameron] was kind of campfire telling me and her, and I’m thinking, ‘I’m about to have a kid and about to follow this kind of adventure of a family was kind of had a weird parallel symmetry.’ I think that was very exciting that if we got the opportunity to tell the whole saga, that would be great.”

“I’ve read two and three, so, I know what happens in two and three and, yeah, I can say that… Well, at the table read we had two and three, which was like, you know, basically this much. And we had, we spent two whole days reading the whole movie,” Jack Champion teased.

Will There Be an Avatar 4?

Initially, it was announced that Avatar would have as many as five sequels, and Cameron has already indicated that he shot a lot of footage for the forthcoming Avatar 4. While there’s no indication of that sequel’s plot, it sounds like it might exceed expectations.

“I can’t tell you the details, but all I can say is that when I turned in the script for 2, the studio gave me three pages of notes,” Cameron explained to Collider. “And when I turned in the script for 3, they gave me a page of notes, so I was getting better. When I turned in the script for 4, the studio executive, creative executive over the films wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy f-ck.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are the notes?’ And she said, ‘Those are the notes.’ Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way, right?”

What do you think of the newest details surrounding Avatar 3? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has gotten a brand new trailer that showcases its various PC features. Despite being the highest-grossing film of all-time, it took over a decade to get a sequel to Avatar and there was very little attempt to keep the sci-fi franchise alive in other mediums. There was a video game from Ubisoft to tie-in to the first film, but it was pretty standard for a movie tie-in game and generally unremarkable. The series laid dormant after that, but Ubisoft was confirmed to be working on a new game in the late 2010s while James Cameron started working on Avatar: The Way of Water and its subsequent sequels.

Now that Avatar: The Way of Water is out and a certified hit, all eyes are on Ubisoft’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora to keep the momentum going. The first look at the game was released this summer and revealed it’s a first-person game where you play as a Na’vi and are able to utilize human technology as well as Na’vi weapons/gear/creatures to take back the forests of Pandora. It looks pretty exciting and like a worthy extension of the growing Avatar universe and a new trailer suggests that Ubisoft will be doing a solid job of bringing the Avatar world to life. Given the amount of money, time, and resources James Cameron poured in to bringing Pandora to life with such vivid imagery, it puts a lot of pressure on Ubisoft to do it right. Thankfully, the trailer showcases a lot of features for the new PC version of the game and makes it look like a visual showcase.

As of right now, we have no idea how Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will turn out. Some people think it’s a bit too identical to Far Cry which could make it less exciting given how many Far Cry games there have been. Either way, it should be an interesting to see if Ubisoft manages to pull it off as it could lead to more Avatar games in the future.

Avatar 3 Release Date

Avatar 3 was intended to release in December 2024, but it was unfortunately delayed to December 2025 earlier this year. It was noted by producers that they need more time to work on the film. Given the immense success of Avatar: The Way of Water, it’s no surprise that Disney even allotted the team behind it the opportunity to continue cracking away at the sequels. It’s possible that spacing them out will lead to even greater success as people won’t be fatigued by the films.

What is Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora About?

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will not adapt any of the films in the franchise, but will instead expand on the world we already know. Players will explore a new area of Pandora and fill the shoes of a Na’vi that wakes up after being put in stasis and waking up 15 years later to find the RDA have started conquering Pandora. It’s up to you to work with the tribes to fight back against the RDA and reclaim your home. It’s expected that the game will have some ties to the films, though it’s not clear to what degree as it’s still intended to be a standalone game.

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Both 2009’s Avatar and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water were absolute smashes at the box office, with both blockbuster films grossing over $1 billion worldwide. Now that The Way of Water recently made its debut on streaming services, the film has crossed another milestone. On Thursday, it was confirmed that Avatar: The Way of Water topped the Nielsen Top 10 ratings for the week of June 5-11, 2023. Between streams on both Disney+ and Max, Avatar: The Way of Water was streamed a total of 1.9 billion minutes in that week.

“I’m not thinking of it in those terms,” director James Cameron previously said of The Way of Water‘s box office performance. “I’m thinking of it in the terms of we’re going back to theaters around the world. They’re even going back to theaters in China where they’re having this big COVID surge. We’re saying as a society, ‘We need this! We need to go to theaters.’ Enough with the streaming already! I’m tired of sitting on my ass.”

What Will Avatar 3 Be About?

Avatar 3 is set to make its debut in theaters on December 19, 2025, and will not only continue to the narrative of The Way of Water, but will introduce a new Na’vi clan of volcano-dwelling “Ash People.” As the cast of The Way of Water revealed to ComicBook.com‘s Brandon Davis late last year, the prospect of what could be explored in Avatar 3 is really enticing. 

“It was about 2015 when I was pushing my wife who was pregnant at the time,” Sam Worthington explained. “So we were pushing around a room with all these visuals, and the visuals was of this family story mapped out over this saga of however movies. It wasn’t even movies at that point. It was just this story that Jim [Cameron] was kind of campfire telling me and her, and I’m thinking, ‘I’m about to have a kid and about to follow this kind of adventure of a family was kind of had a weird parallel symmetry.’ I think that was very exciting that if we got the opportunity to tell the whole saga, that would be great.”

“I’ve read two and three, so, I know what happens in two and three and, yeah, I can say that… Well, at the table read we had two and three, which was like, you know, basically this much. And we had, we spent two whole days reading the whole movie,” Jack Champion teased.

What is Avatar 2 about?

Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family, the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure. The film will see the return of Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Giovanni Ribisi, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, CCH Pounder, and Matt Gerald.

New cast members include Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Oona Chaplin, David Thewlis, and CJ Jones.

What did you think of Avatar: The Way of Water? How do you feel about its streaming performance? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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The long delay for the release of Avatar 5 has garnered a hilarious reaction from star Zoe Saldaña. Disney shuffled its release future release dates for several projects, including those found under the Marvel, Star Wars, and Avatar banners. As a possible reaction to the current writers’ strike, Disney set new release dates for Avatar 3, Avatar 4, and Avatar 5. It’s the latter date that raises the most eyebrows, however, with Disney slating it for December 19, 2031. This would be 22 years after the premiere of the original Avatar back in 2009. This didn’t go unnoticed by Saldaña, who had a clever joke about how old she’d be reprising her role as Neytiri when Avatar 5 comes out.

“Great! I’m gonna be 53 when the last Avatar movie comes out,” Zoe Saldaña wrote in a post to her Instagram Stories alongside a photo of Neytiri. “I was 27 when I shot the very first Avatar movie. The Guardians of the Galaxy star isn’t the only person involved in Avatar 5 that will be up in age. For example, her co-star Sam Worthington will be 55 years old, and director James Cameron will be 77 years old.

Avatar 3 was originally set for a 2024 release, with Disney scheduling each of the remaining three films two years apart. Avatar 3 will now bow on December 19, 2025, followed by Avatar 4 on December 21, 2029.

Avatar 3 Behind-the-Scenes Photo Revealed

Avatar producer Jon Landau revealed a new behind-the-scenes photo in response to the delays to the franchise’s next three films.

“Each Avatar film is an exciting but epic undertaking that takes time to bring to the quality level we as filmmakers strive for and audiences have come to expect,” Jon Landau tweeted alongside a new image. “The team is hard at work and can’t wait to bring audiences back to Pandora in December 2025.”

Cameron shot 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar 3 in September 2017. In November 2018, Cameron announced he wrapped filming with the principal cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, and Kate Winslet. Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) and David Thewlis (the Harry Potter franchise) are among the new additions to the cast.

Plot details remain under wraps, but Avatar 3 will explore the dynamics between Sully (Worthington) and Neytiri (Saldana), and Ronal (Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis).

“There’s a lot going on between husbands and wives and between the two husbands and the two wives,” Rick Jaffa, who co-wrote the threequel with Amanda Silver, teased about the threequel. “There are a lot of dynamics set up that continue to play out.”

“You have this kind of deeply relatable series of dynamics, inter-family, interpersonal, inter-clan, played out on these incredibly inflated scales of different worlds,” Silver added. “The clans that you’re going to meet and the worlds that you’re going to find on Pandora — you can’t even imagine what they are. Just like the tulkun were a revelation for this movie, there’s lots more of that stuff to come. It’s incredibly exciting, the story that happens to the Sullys. You couldn’t predict it.”

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James Cameron will be returning to the world of Pandora later than scheduled. On Tuesday, Disney’s 20th Century Studios delayed the next three Avatar sequels: the untitled Avatar 3 moved from December 20th, 2024, to December 19th, 2025; Avatar 4 moved from December 18th, 2026, to December 21st, 2029; and the fifth and final installment, Avatar 5, moved from December 22nd, 2028, to December 19th, 2031. (Disney also reshuffled its Marvel Studios slate and dated the live-action Moana for 2025 and a new Star Wars movie for December 18th, 2026, taking Avatar 4‘s vacated release date.) 

“Each Avatar film is an exciting but epic undertaking that takes time to bring to the quality level we as filmmakers strive for and audiences have come to expect,” franchise producer Jon Landau tweeted alongside a new image. “The team is hard at work and can’t wait to bring audiences back to Pandora in December 2025.”

Cameron shot 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar 3 in September 2017. In November 2018, Cameron announced he wrapped filming with the principal cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, and Kate Winslet. Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) and David Thewlis (the Harry Potter franchise) are among the new additions to the cast.

Plot details remain under wraps, but Avatar 3 will explore the dynamics between Sully (Worthington) and Neytiri (Saldana), and Ronal (Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis).

“There’s a lot going on between husbands and wives and between thetwo husbands and the two wives,” Rick Jaffa, who co-wrote the threequel with Amanda Silver, teased about the threequel. “There are a lot ofdynamics set up that continue to play out.”

“You have this kind of deeply relatable series of dynamics,inter-family, interpersonal, inter-clan, played out on these incrediblyinflated scales of different worlds,” Silver added. “The clans thatyou’re going to meet and the worlds that you’re going to find on Pandora— you can’t even imagine what they are. Just like the tulkun were arevelation for this movie, there’s lots more of that stuff to come. It’sincredibly exciting, the story that happens to the Sullys. You couldn’tpredict it.”

Avatar 3 is now scheduled to open in theaters on December 19th, 2025.

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Since going on strike this past May, the Writer’s Guild of America has put a pause on just about every Hollywood project currently in pre-production. While some were able to submit final drafts of scripts before the strike commenced, such as James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy, the bulk of blossoming films and television shows have been put on an indefinite hiatus until writers are able to return to work. While the strike has only be active for a little over one month, the looming possibility of a SAG-AFTRA strike as well could put the entire entertainment industry on pause.

Disney has seemingly directly reacted to the uncertain future by shifting a number of blockbuster projects over the course of the next decade. Among them are the next three Avatar films.

• Avatar 3 moves to December 19th, 2025
• Avatar 4 moves to December 21st, 2029
• Avatar 5 moves to December 19th, 2031

Avatar finds itself in a unique position. As of December 2022, producer Jon Landau revealed that they have already shot “95%” of Avatar 3 as well as the “first act” of the fourth film. Beyond that, the pentalogy has all three remaining scripts completed. It’s unclear as to how much Avatar 3 is being impacted by the WGA strike and a potential SAG-AFTRA strike.

The galaxy far, far away is also pivoting. While no specific titles are known at this point, the next three Star Wars theatrical releases are moving to new dates.

• Untitled Star Wars movie moves to December 19th, 2025
• Untitled Star Wars movie moves to May 22nd, 2026
• Untitled Star Wars movie moves to December 18th, 2026

While which Star Wars movie is which is unknown, there are a number of confirmed stories in development. It was announced earlier this year at Star Wars Celebration that Daisy Ridley would be reprising her role as Rey in an upcoming film set after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Directors Taika Waititi and James Mangold also have Star Wars movie in development. Disney+ Star Wars guru Dave Filoni is working on a feature film that will culminate the events of streaming shows The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka.

Beyond those two blockbuster franchises, Disney has also delayed seven upcoming Marvel films. This includes both Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, which will now arrive in May 2026 and May 2027, respectively.

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Disney and 20th Century Studios released the sequel to 2009’s Avatar, and it made a pretty big splash on the internet as well as at the box office. Avatar: The Way of Water quickly became the third-highest grossing film of all time, and it even won an Oscar. Director James Cameron has been hard at work doing post-production on the upcoming third film in the franchise, and it’s expected to hit theaters next year. Avatar 3 will bring back most of the actors from Avatar: The Way of Water, including Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, and even Sigourney Weaver. In a new interview with Screen Rant, the Avatar 3 star revealed that they’re about to do reshoots.

“I know that in January, I go back and probably do some pickups, I don’t think there are whole new scenes to be shot. I think it’s going to be refining what [James Cameron’s] got now that he’s closing in on the edit, because he always has too much material. He loves to shoot. I wouldn’t even begin to guess of what we might be doing, but I think it’s just maybe going back to a couple of moments and giving him some footage that he didn’t get the way he wants to,” Weaver said before revealing that she has not seen any footage. “No, it’s not that kind of thing, it’s top secret even for us. [Chuckles] And then, probably when I go back in January and do a day on it, they will show me 20 minutes of it, but otherwise, I’m just in the dark, just like everybody 

Avatar: The Way of Water Won Best Visual Effects at Oscars

Avatar: The Way of Water took home the Oscar for Best Visual Effects during the 95th Academy Awards, with the gold going to production senior visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri, WETA FX senior animation supervisor Daniel Barrett, and WETA FX visual effects supervisors Richard Baneham and Eric Seindon. For the win, Disney/20th Century Studios’ Avatar 2 beat out Tom Cruise’s high-flying Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Pictures), German-language war drama remake All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix), DC’s dark and gritty Dark Knight reboot The Batman (Warner Bros. Pictures), and Marvel Studios superhero blockbuster Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Walt Disney Pictures).

Cameron’s Avatar sequel went into Oscars night with a total of four nominations, including Best Picture, Best Sound, and Best Production Design. The original 2009 Avatar also won the Best Visual Effects Oscar and took home awards for art direction and cinematography.

Avatar: The Way of Water is available on all major digital retailers including Apple TV, Prime Video, Vudu, Google Play, and Movies Anywhere. It will also be available on Disney+ and Max starting June 7th. Avatar 3 is scheduled to be released on December 20, 2024.

What do you think about Avatar 3 doing reshoots? Are you excited for the next film in the franchise? Let us know in the comments below or by hitting up our writer @NateBrail on Twitter!

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John Refoua, the editor of James Cameron’s Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, has died. He was 58. His wife, Serena Refoua, announced that the Oscar-nominated Avatar editor was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare bile duct cancer, 15 months ago and was editing the upcoming Avatar 3 “right up to his final weeks” before his death on May 14th. Along with his Oscar nomination for 2009’s Avatar, which he shared with co-editors Cameron and Stephen E. Rivkin, Refoua was awarded theBroadcast Film Critics Association Award and the Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for editing. He was also a BAFTA Awards nominee for his work on the original Avatar, which remains the highest-grossing film of all time.

Remembering her “brilliant, sweet, creative husband John Djahanshah Refoua,” Serena wrote on Facebook that Refoua died “surrounded by family and friends who loved him. He was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare bile duct cancer, 15 months ago. Despite the pain and complexities of this aggressive disease, he faced it with courage and grit. He continued to work and edit on James Cameron’s Avatar 3 right up to his final weeks.”

She continued: “His life’s trajectory was quite unique and anything he touched, he made better. He loved music, movies, politics, traveling, vintage cars, science fiction, and his 4-year-old granddaughter Avery Sophia. We will miss his generosity and wisdom.”

In lieu of flowers, Serena asked that donations in Refoua’s name be made to The Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, the leading global resource in research, education, and public awareness that is on a mission to find a cure and improve the quality of life for those affected by bile duct cancer.

In addition to the first three Avatar movies, Refoua’s credits include The Equalizer (2014), Southpaw (2015), The Magnificent Seven (2016), Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), and Geostorm (2017). On television, Refoua served as an editor on Touched by an Angel (1994), Law & Order (1999), Ally McBeal (2002), Dark Angel (2000-2002), CSI: Miami (2002-2011), Sleepy Hollow (2013), and most recently, The Whispers (2015).

Refoua’s final completed film was Avatar: The Way of Water, Cameron’s 13-years-later sequel to the original that grossed $2.32 billion to become the highest-grossing film of 2022 and the third highest-grossing film of all time behind Avatar and Avengers: Endgame.

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Avatar: The Way of Water didn’t turn to be the massive gamble so many once thought it was – in fact, it’s looking like one of the best business decisions that 20th Century Studios and James Cameron ever made. 

According to a recent analysis, Avatar 2 has earned over half a billion dollars ($531.7 million) in estimated profit since its release – a nice margin of the $2.317 billion the film earned worldwide at the box office. 

Avatar creator James Cameron was shockingly clear before The Way of Water’s release, stating in interviews that, on paper, making the sequel “the worst business case in movie history,” since recouping the cost of the production required that  it would “have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history.” 

Well, as it stands Avatar: The Way of Water did end up being the third-highest-grossing film of all time, with the first Avatar and Avengers: Endgame still retaining the no. 1 and no. 2 spots, respectively. Having hit the mark, it’s no surprise then that Avatar 2 has made a nice profit, and Deadline’s breakdown indicates there are more profits to come: 

As the third highest-grossing movie of all time with $2.3 billion, behind Avatar’s $2.9 billion and Avengers: Endgame’s $2.79 billion, Deadline sources deem Avatar: The Way of Water profitable with $531.7 million. And that doesn’t include the ancillary revenue from Avatar’s presence at Disney theme parks, which the conglom also counts on its books.

This will no doubt give Disney and 20th Century Studios all the confidence needed to pull ahead with Cameron’s plans for Avatar 3, Avatar 4, and Avatar 5. Disney had previously planned to have Cameron’s movies alternate years of release with big Star Wars movies – though it’s unclear what that timeline looks like now, as both franchises (like the industry) have seen major shifts in the years since COVID. 

According to Avatar franchise Zoe Saldana, however, cameras on Avatar 3 should start rolling this summer: 

“We’re gonna go back this summer and finish it [Avatar 3] up. We’re 70% done there. But, we have time…. How stoked are we? We’re pinching ourselves, but nobody more than James Cameron. Jimbo is pinching himself going ‘I told you, man, I bet on the right people.’ And we bet on him over and over again. I’m proud of him. I’m proud of him and his entire team. I feel so lucky to be a part of something that gets to really change lives and change cinema’s history. I just love it.”

Avatar: The Way of Water is available to watch on Digital. Avatar 3 is headed into production. 

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Avatar: The Way of Water has finally arrived on digital platforms for viewing at home, and fans are already combing through the bonus materials. As noticed by a fan on the Avatar subreddit, the included making of documentary, “Building the World of Pandora,”  which clocks in at two and a half hours, may have revealed a spoiler by accident. Early on in the doc a close-up shot of a screenplay is shown on screen very briefly. This moment was noticed and subsequently transcribed by fans, revealing a potentially big piece of the puzzle for the upcoming Avatar 3. Potential spoilers follow! 

There are two big things seen on the two script pages that will make fans of the Avatar series raise their eyebrows. The first of these is that a tense but friendly relationship is starting to form between Jake Sully and Colonel Miles Quaritch. This seems to have sprouted from both of them caring for Spider, Quaritch being his biological father and Jake having raised him on Pandora for most of his life. In the script pages that have been deciphered, their relationship remains largely adversarial, though common ground surrounding Spider seems to have settled them down a bit.

The second big reveal concerns Spider himself. According to the pages, what can be read at least, the young man has adapted to the environment on Pandora and can now breath the air on his own. Having worn a respirator mask for most of his life, being able to breath the toxic air of the planet is a major shift for the character. There’s also the reveal that the Sully family has returned to High Camp, their original home at the start of Avatar: The Way of Water, and former marine turned avatar Wainfleet is still alive and well too.

Now of course we must acknowledge the potential that these pages are not real. As fans know, the Avatar sequels were being shot at the same time so the scripts were written before production had began. Knowing that, it would certainly make sense that some of the footage seen in this making of feature would include bits and pieces of Avatar sequels that haven’t even come out. Again though, that’s assuming this is even accurate.

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Even before Avatar: The Way of Water was released last year, director James Cameron had been touting how far ahead they were on the rest of the franchise. More than once it was confirmed the second movie was shot alongside the third movie, with reports also arising that footage from Avatar 4 was also shot at the time. In a new interview however franchise star Zoe Saldana seemed to indicate there was still work to be done. Speaking with Entertainment Tonight at The Oscars (H/T Screen Rant), Saldana revealed that this summer will see the cast reconvene to film more footage for the sequel.

When asked by the outlet if the third movie was finished filming, Saldana replied: “Yeah, I mean, we’re gonna go back this summer and finish it up. We’re 70% done there. But, we have time.” ET added that Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh is set to make her debut in the series with the third film, prompting Saldana to add: “How stoked are we? We’re pinching ourselves, but nobody more than James Cameron. Jimbo is pinching himself going ‘I told you, man, I bet on the right people.’ And we bet on him over and over again. I’m proud of him. I’m proud of him and his entire team. I feel so lucky to be a part of something that gets to really change lives and change cinemas history. I just love it.”

An official title for Avatar 3 has not been confirmed just yet, but we do have an idea of what we’ll likely be able to find when the sequel does land. Screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver previously teased to Variety some elements of the plot of the third movie — particularly, the dynamic between Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), and Ronal (Kate Winslet).

“There’s a lot going on between husbands and wives and between the two husbands and the two wives,” Jaffa explained. “There are a lot of dynamics set up that continue to play out.”

“You have this kind of deeply relatable series of dynamics, inter-family, interpersonal, inter-clan, played out on these incredibly inflated scales of different worlds,” Silver echoed. “The clans that you’re going to meet and the worlds that you’re going to find on Pandora — you can’t even imagine what they are. Just like the tulkun were a revelation for this movie, there’s lots more of that stuff to come. It’s incredibly exciting, the story that happens to the Sullys. You couldn’t predict it.”

Avatar 3 is scheduled to be released on December 20, 2024.

Read More Avatar: The Way of Water Content:

• Avatar 2 Writers Tease the Mystery of Sigourney Weaver’s “Na’vi Jesus”
• Avatar: The Way of Water VFX Supervisor Rushed to Surgery After Oscar Win
• Avatar’s James Cameron Has Interesting New Answer About TV Series Potential
  

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