There is only one thing that James Cameron loves more than water, and that is a sequel. What happens when you combine the two? You get Avatar: The Way Of Water. Add in a couple billion bucks and then you have the currently untitled Avatar 3.
Cameron has been working on the third installment in the sci-fi franchise seemingly forever, though filming for the second and third movies took place simultaneously beginning in 2017. In September 2020, Cameron confirmed that the third film was “95% done” and revealed earlier this year that it’s “in the can.”
“We’re shooting pick-ups on 3, which is just filling in the last 2 or 3%, and we’ve also got live-action pick-ups in June, that’s another couple percent,” he told Screen Rant. Even though his math is a little off, he’s still optimistic. “We’ve got about a quarter of movie 4 in the can. We’re post on 3 and now doing the VFX, which is an enormous job. I’ll need every second between now and then to get it done.” It only took about four years to get the rest of the 4% done!! By this rate, we’ll get Avatar 4 by 2065. To Cameron’s credit, a lot of thees delays were not his fault.
Now that the movie is coming to life, here is everything you need to know about the upcoming sequel, which is NOT called The Seed Bearer, by the way.
Plot
The first two movies in the Avatar universe introduce fans to the lush world of Pandora, which is being threatened by humans who want to use the planet and its resources. In the second film, Sully has fully leaned into his Avatar life and raises his three children alongside Neytiri as they venture to the Metkayina oceanic clan in order to escape The Research Development Administration, aka the RDA, a.k.a. the humans of Earth.
The third film will explore the universe even more by showcasing the various cultures of Pandora — and not all of them are good. Cameron told French publication 20 Minutes that the film will explore “different cultures from those I have already shown. The fire will be represented by the ‘Ash People.’ I want to show the Na’vi from another angle because, so far, I have only shown their good sides.”
The film will also give Sully’s son Lo’ak a more prominent voice in the series. Cameron confirmed that there will be multiple narrators in the next movie. “I think it could be intriguing for people to think about what’s coming. Jake was our voiceover narrator for movie 1 and movie 2, and we have a different narrator for each of the subsequent films. We see it through the eyes of a different character, and movie 3 is through Lo’ak’s eyes.”
Cast
The main crew will be returning, including Sam Worthington as Jake Sully, Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri, Sigourney Weaver as Kiri, Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch, Kate Winslet as Ronal, and Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge.
As for newbies, David Thewlis will portray a new character named Peylak, while Michelle Yeoh has signed on as Dr. Karina Mogue, a human scientist. Oona Chaplin will portray Varang, the leader of the “Ash People” clan.
Release Date
After nine (!!!) changed release dates, the current release date is December 19th 2025, but that could change.
Trailer
While we don’t have a trailer quite yet, James Cameron has confirmed that the film is basically done, so he could potentially drop footage any day now, but we probably won’t be seeing anything until later in the year.
Here is the trailer for the second installment, which is now on Disney+.