James Cameron Teases Big Changes in ‘Avatar 4’ & ‘Avatar 5’

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Avatar director James Cameron is still finalizing Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third movie in the sci-fi series, which is scheduled to come out in December 2025. While he’s probably waiting to see how the third Avatar film performs with viewers, he’s already created a plan for parts 4 and 5, which don’t have titles yet. Cameron has always been open about his intention to continue the Avatar series as originally planned. Each movie is a risk, especially with how much they cost to make, but Cameron consistently earns a profit. Even so, he understands that making films of this scale today also relies on good fortune within the studio system.

The director recently discussed his upcoming projects with Variety, hinting at plans to create Avatar 4 and 5 soon. He’s also working on a dramatic film called Ghosts of Hiroshima, though that project is still in its early stages. Currently, expanding the Avatar universe is his main focus. While discussing the progress of Avatar 2 and 3, he also shared some information about the fourth and fifth films, which are currently slated for release in 2029 and 2031. From what he’s said, they promise to be suitably grand in scale…

We began in September of 2017 and filmed for 18 months. We completed both movies, essentially everything, except for some reshoots that were already scheduled and a few scenes where I added new material. However, the overwhelming majority – around 95% – was filmed within that 18-month period. That timeframe included Sigourney playing the 15-year-old Kiri in both films, which worked remarkably well, as her character has a continuous story arc throughout. The two and three films really tell one large, connected story.

Ideally, if things go well and I’m able to create parts 4 and 5, they’ll combine to tell a complete, larger story. The narrative will pause briefly after the conclusion of part 3. This doesn’t necessarily mean production will halt, but the story itself will take a short break before jumping ahead in time a little bit.

Will ‘Avatar’ Continue to Succeed at the Box Office?


20th Century Studios

Figuring out why the Avatar franchise has been so successful is complicated. The two movies released so far have been huge hits financially, earning over $5 billion around the world. However, when it comes to how much people talk about it and the size of its fanbase, many other franchises are more popular than Avatar. While superhero movies are incredibly popular now, the original Avatar from 2009 still holds the record for the highest-grossing film ever. Although that’s an amazing accomplishment, it must be a lot of pressure to try and surpass the success of your two biggest films with three, four, and even five more sequels.

Cameron definitely understands the huge pressure of keeping the Avatar series going for many years. Avatar: The Way of Water did extremely well, earning $2.3 billion, but it didn’t make as much profit as the original, which brought in $2.9 billion. With Avatar: Fire and Ash, he’s trying to create a third film at a time when some people are starting to wonder if the series can still be successful. However, Avatar 2 came out after the COVID-19 pandemic, so how audiences will react is still uncertain.

Avatar offers a vast and compelling world filled with interesting characters and possibilities for future stories. Many consider Avatar to be among the best science fiction stories ever written, and the only real boundary to its expansion appears to be the creativity of its writer. Even with two movies already released, he keeps surprising us by evolving his own established world, and despite some doubts about whether he can successfully grow the Avatar franchise, he consistently demonstrates his vision and skill.

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2025-10-02 18:46