{"id":360755,"date":"2025-12-20T22:39:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T22:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/360755\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T22:39:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T22:39:32","slug":"burning-quesitons-and-answers-about-avatar-4-and-avatar-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/360755\/","title":{"rendered":"Burning quesitons (and answers) about Avatar 4 and Avatar 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Avatar<\/a>: Fire and Ash has blazed out of the gate with the movie’s opening weekend box office projections to exceeding $350 million worldwide<\/a>. This third installment<\/a> arrives a mere three years after the previous sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, which took 13 years for director James Cameron<\/a> to make. And his next trip to Pandora is at least another five years away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hollywood is waiting to see if Fire and Ash can replicate the response to the first two Avatar films, which both rank among the highest-grossing movies ever made, banking more than $2 billion each. It\u2019s a high bar to live up to, and the future of the franchise may depend on just how well Fire and Ash performs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Scrooged\"<\/a> \"ATLANTA,<\/a> <\/p>\n

Cameron has already indicated that he still has plans to make Avatar 4<\/a> and Avatar 5<\/a>, having completed scripts for both and film portions of the former. As we await the box-office verdict for Fire and Ash, Gold Derby has assembled everything we know about the next two installments. <\/p>\n

\"Director James Cameron and Oona Chaplin on the set of ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash<\/a>‘Mark Fellman\/20th Century Studios<\/p>\n

When are Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 coming out?<\/p>\n

Both of the remaining sequels were given release dates<\/a> in 2023; Avatar 4 is currently slated for Dec. 21, 2029 and Avatar 5 will follow on Dec. 19, 2031.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do both Avatar sequels have a greenlight?<\/p>\n

We certainly thought so, especially since Cameron has already filmed part of Avatar 4. But during his recent appearance on the Matthew Belloni’s podcast, The Town<\/a>, Cameron expressed some doubt about whether the sequels should Fire and Ash fall short of the success of the first two films.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The budget] is one metric f–k ton of money, which means we have to make two metric f–k tons of money to make a profit,\u201d said Cameron. \u201cI have no doubt in my mind that this movie will make money. The question is, does it make enough money to justify doing it again?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameron went on to say that he\u2019s at peace with leaving the franchise if Fire and Ash isn\u2019t as successful as it needs to be, and has an alternate plan to wrap things up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in Avatar land for 20 years,\u201d related Cameron. \u201cActually 30 years, because I wrote it in \u201895, but I wasn\u2019t working continuously on it for those first 10 years. If this is where it ends, cool. … There\u2019s one open thread [after Fire and Ash]. I\u2019ll write a book!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AVATAR:‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’20th Century Studios<\/p>\n

What are the budgets for Avatar 4 and 5?<\/p>\n

Or, to use Cameron-speak, what exactly is a metric f–k ton?<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know yet, but we can make an educated guess. Avatar: The Way of Water is estimated to have cost between $350 million and $460 million, while Avatar: Fire and Ash, which was shot concurrently, reportedly had a budget of more than $400 million.<\/p>\n

Given those numbers, it stands to reason that Avatar 4 and 5 will likely cost at least $400 million per film or approximately $800 million for the pair. Both films would have to rank among the highest-grossing movies of all time to make a profit. The first two Avatar movies pulled that off, but it remains to be seen if the third film will join their ranks. At this scale, it\u2019s easy to see why even Cameron is uncertain about the fate of the sequels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Cameron, Zoe Salda\u00f1a<\/a> and Sam Worthington on the set of Avatar: Fire and Ash20th Century Studios<\/p>\n

What do we know about the plots for Avatar 4 and 5?<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Cameron indicated The Way of Water and Fire and Ash \u201ctell one big story<\/a>,” adding that Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 will also function as a two-movie storyline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of stops for a beat after the end of 3,” Cameron said. “I don\u2019t mean we\u2019ll necessarily stop in production, but the story kind of stops and then it jumps forward in time a little bit.\u201d In 2022, the late Avatar producer Jon Landau revealed<\/a> that the beginning of Avatar 4 has already been filmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve completed most of the first act of Avatar 4 and there were logistical reasons why we needed to do that,\u201d said Landau. \u201cWe\u2019ve designed most of the whole movie for Avatar 4, but we haven\u2019t actually filmed all of it. Just the first act.\u201d<\/p>\n

A subsequent Variety report in 2024<\/a> confirmed that Cameron shot all of the live-action scenes for Avatar 4\u2019s first act, which takes place within the same time frame as Fire and Ash before the story jumps forward six years. The second and third acts have yet to be filmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheThe young cast of ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’20th Century Studios<\/p>\n

\u201cWe even did part of movie four because our young characters are all going to have a big time jump in movie four,\u201d said Cameron. \u201cWe 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\u2019t shot yet. So we\u2019ll start on that after [Fire and Ash] is released.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landau, who died in July 2024 and to whom Fire and Ash is dedicated<\/a>, also disclosed that part of Avatar 5 will take place away from Pandora<\/a> and involve Zoe Salda\u00f1a’s character.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn [Avatar 5], there is a section of the story where we go to Earth. And we go to it to open people\u2019s eyes, open Neytiri\u2019s eyes, to what exists on Earth,\u201d said Landau. \u201cEarth is not just represented by the RDA. Just like you\u2019re defined by the choices you make in life, not all humans are bad. Not all Na\u2019vi are good. And that\u2019s the case here on Earth. And we want to expose Neytiri to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ZoeZoe Salda\u00f1a on the set Mark Fellman\/20th Century Studios<\/p>\n

Earth was only briefly glimpsed in the first Avatar, but we can infer that things are dire enough that humanity staged a second invasion of Pandora after being repelled from the planet in the original movie. The big questions about Neytiri\u2019s future journey to Earth are simple: Why is she going there? And who\u2019s going with her?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps the answer to those questions has to do with the rumored title of Avatar 5, The Quest for Eywa. Cameron has confirmed that title is under consideration<\/a>, but he has yet to say whether the final film will include that name.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Oscar-nominated production designer Dylan Cole told Gold Derby<\/a> that his team already has concept art for the next two movies, although a lot of those designs are in early stages. “We know in broad strokes where we’re going design-wise in the next movies,” he revealed. “We did all of those designs before we had the scripts for the next movies, and now that the scripts are in, there’s tailoring and set-building to be done. But we’re certainly not starting from scratch.”<\/p>\n

What Does James Cameron want to do next?<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel I\u2019m at a bit of a crossroads,\u201d said Cameron during a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>. \u201cDo I want [Fire and Ash] to be a wild success \u2014 which almost compels me to continue and make two more Avatar movies? Or do I want it to fail just enough that I can justify doing something else?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AVATAR:Sigourney Weaver and James CameronMark Fellman\/20th Century Studios\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got other stories to tell,\u201d added Cameron. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve got other stories to tell within Avatar. What won\u2019t happen is, I won\u2019t go down the rabbit hole of exclusively making only Avatar for multiple years. I\u2019m going to figure out another way that involves more collaboration. I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m going to step away as a director, but I\u2019m going to pull back from being as hands-on with every tiny aspect of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the same interview feature, Cameron confirmed that he is working on a new Terminator movie… and Arnold Schwarzenegger will not be a part of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the dust clears on Avatar, I\u2019m going to really plunge into [Terminator],\u201d said Cameron. \u201cThere are a lot of narrative problems to solve. The biggest is how do I stay enough ahead of what\u2019s really happening to make it science fiction? … I can safely say [Schwarzenegger] won\u2019t be [in it]. It\u2019s time for a new generation of characters. I insisted Arnold had to be involved in Terminator: Dark Fate, and it was a great finish to him playing the T-800. There needs to be a broader interpretation of Terminator and the idea of a time war and super intelligence. I want to do new stuff that people aren\u2019t imagining.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Avatar: Fire and Ash has blazed out of the gate with the movie’s opening weekend box office projections…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[35154,171313,178060,34531,88,17820,20380,206,166350],"class_list":{"0":"post-360755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-avatar","9":"tag-avatar-4","10":"tag-avatar-5","11":"tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-fyc","14":"tag-james-cameron","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-zoe-saldau00f1a"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}