Back to Pandora — again. Before Avatar: The Way of Water hit theaters in December 2022, director James Cameron was already mostly done with the third film in the franchise.
The first Avatar movie premiered in December 2009 and quickly became the highest-grossing film of all time. Plenty of other major franchises have released highly anticipated films in the years since — Star Wars, Marvel and the Fast and the Furious — but none have dethroned Cameron’s sci-fi epic from the top spot.
Avatar follows human soldier Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as he arrives on the foreign planet Pandora, which is populated by a race of 10-foot-tall blue aliens called the Na’vi. Jake and his colleagues at the Resources Development Administration (RDA) use hybrid human-Na’vi “avatars” to move around the planet, as humans can’t breathe Pandoran air on their own.
While spying for the RDA, Jake falls in love with a female Na’vi named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and decides to help them defeat the humans, known to the Na’vi as the “sky people.” The humans sustain casualties, including Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), the latter of whom eventually sides with the Na’vi.
When Avatar: The Way of Water begins, Jake has started a family with Neytiri, but Pandora is once again under attack by the sky people. This time, humans want to use the planet as a colony of Earth, which has become uninhabitable because of the climate crisis. Quaritch, whose memories have been implanted in a new avatar, is out for revenge on Jake, whose family must take refuge with the water-going people of the Metkayina clan.
Jake, Neytiri and their children are eventually welcomed to stay in the Metkayina village, but the movie ends with several loose ends. The new Quaritch is still alive, the humans are still attacking and the origin of Jake’s daughter Kiri (Weaver) remains unexplained. Plot details about Avatar 3 are scarce and top-secret, but it seems clear Jake’s kids will play a major role, as Cameron said they’re one of the main reasons he filmed the second and third movies simultaneously.
The Titanic director said that Jack Champion, who plays human teen Spider, is “growing like a weed” after being cast in the film at age 12. For that reason, the Oscar winner decided to shoot parts of Avatar 3 and Avatar 4 while filming The Way of Water.
“Otherwise, you get — and I love Stranger Things — but you get the Stranger Things effect where they’re supposed to still be in high school [but] they look like they’re 27,” Cameron quipped to Entertainment Weekly in December 2022. “You know, I love the show. It’s OK, we’ll suspend disbelief. We like the characters, but, you know.”
Keep scrolling for everything to know about Avatar 3:
Back to Pandora — again. Before Avatar: The Way of Water hit theaters in December 2022, director James Cameron was already mostly done with the third film in the franchise.
The first Avatar movie premiered in December 2009 and quickly became the highest-grossing film of all time. Plenty of other major franchises have released highly anticipated films in the years since — Star Wars, Marvel and the Fast and the Furious — but none have dethroned Cameron’s sci-fi epic from the top spot.
Avatar follows human soldier Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as he arrives on the foreign planet Pandora, which is populated by a race of 10-foot-tall blue aliens called the Na’vi. Jake and his colleagues at the Resources Development Administration (RDA) use hybrid human-Na’vi “avatars” to move around the planet, as humans can’t breathe Pandoran air on their own.
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While spying for the RDA, Jake falls in love with a female Na’vi named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and decides to help them defeat the humans, known to the Na’vi as the “sky people.” The humans sustain casualties, including Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), the latter of whom eventually sides with the Na’vi.
When Avatar: The Way of Water begins, Jake has started a family with Neytiri, but Pandora is once again under attack by the sky people. This time, humans want to use the planet as a colony of Earth, which has become uninhabitable because of the climate crisis. Quaritch, whose memories have been implanted in a new avatar, is out for revenge on Jake, whose family must take refuge with the water-going people of the Metkayina clan.
Jake, Neytiri and their children are eventually welcomed to stay in the Metkayina village, but the movie ends with several loose ends. The new Quaritch is still alive, the humans are still attacking and the origin of Jake’s daughter Kiri (Weaver) remains unexplained. Plot details about Avatar 3 are scarce and top-secret, but it seems clear Jake’s kids will play a major role, as Cameron said they’re one of the main reasons he filmed the second and third movies simultaneously.
The Titanic director said that Jack Champion, who plays human teen Spider, is “growing like a weed” after being cast in the film at age 12. For that reason, the Oscar winner decided to shoot parts of Avatar 3 and Avatar 4 while filming The Way of Water.
“Otherwise, you get — and I love Stranger Things — but you get the Stranger Things effect where they’re supposed to still be in high school [but] they look like they’re 27,” Cameron quipped to Entertainment Weekly in December 2022. “You know, I love the show. It’s OK, we’ll suspend disbelief. We like the characters, but, you know.”
Keep scrolling for everything to know about Avatar 3:
Credit: Kristina Bumphrey/Shutterstock
When Does ‘Avatar 3’ Premiere?
The third Avatar movie is scheduled to hit theaters on December 20, 2024.
Credit: Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock
Who’s Coming Back for ‘Avatar 3’?
Worthington, Saldana, Lang, Weaver and Champion will all reprise their roles from The Way of Water. Cliff Curtis, CCH Pounder and Kate Winslet are expected to return as the Na’vi they played in Avatar 2, while Oona Chaplin, David Thewlis and Michelle Yeoh will debut in new roles.
Credit: Youtube
What Is ‘Avatar 3’ About?
Cameron has kept the plot of Avatar 3 under wraps, but he’s said that one possible title for the film is Avatar: The Seed Bearer. While Jake and his family have settled in with the Metkayina, Pandora is still under threat from Quaritch and the humans. There’s also the mystery of Kiri’s parentage to uncover, which was left deliberately vague in The Way of Water.
Credit: Youtube
How Much of ‘Avatar 3’ Is Filmed?
Principal filming for Avatar 3 was finished in December 2020, but the film’s visual effects and editing are not complete. In December 2022, rumors surfaced that the first cut of the threequel is over nine hours long.
Credit: Youtube
Will There Be More ‘Avatar’ Movies?
According to Cameron, there will be at least two more sequels after Avatar 3 — if not more. Parts of Avatar 4 were filmed at the same time as The Way of Water and Avatar 3, and the movie is tentatively scheduled for release in 2026. Avatar 5, meanwhile, will arrive in 2028, and producer Jon Landau has said that it will follow Neytiri as she visits Earth. If those movies succeed, Cameron revealed that he has plans for sixth and seventh films as well.
