Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third installment of James Cameron’s box office-shattering fantasy franchise, is not for the weak of bladder. The veteran director intends to take audiences on an extended cinematic journey that exceeds the butt-numbing runtime of 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water. That film clocked in at 192 minutes, while the 2009 original was a breezy 162 minutes.
In an interview with Empire, Cameron admitted that The Way of Water was paced so rapidly that there wasn’t time for character development. As a result, plot points from the second film were pushed to its sequel. “[It] was moving like a bullet train,” Cameron said. “I said, ‘Guys, we’ve got to split it.‘” As a result, “Movie 3 will actually be a little bit longer than movie 2.”
Cameron, who remains a master of the box office blockbuster, isn’t worried about complaints over the film’s length. “I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours,” he said, acknowledging that fans are accustomed to long runtimes in today’s entertainment landscape.
Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters on Dec. 19, 2025. While the plot remains under wraps, it is expected to dive deeper into the characters and fantastic worlds that Cameron and co-writer Amanda Silver created. “These movies are a lot more than just propulsive plot and gorgeous spectacle,” Silver told Empire. Sam Worthington will return as Jake Sully, while newly minted Oscar winner Zoe Saldaña will reprise her role as Neytiri.
When asked about the remaining films in the franchise, Cameron confirmed his return for the fourth and fifth installments: “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?” Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 are slated for release in 2029 and 2031, respectively.
