Sam Worthington told People magazine at the premiere of his Netflix heist thriller “Lift” that the cast of James Cameron‘s “Avatar” films are gearing up to return to production in February. The director is currently deep into post-production on “Avatar 3,” which Disney has given a 2025 release date. Cameron has also shot all of the live-action scenes for “Avatar 4” that take place before a time jump in the story. The remainder of the fourth film still needs to be filmed.
“We go back to work on it in a month and it’s big,” Worthington said of the next “Avatar” films. “It’s bigger than you can imagine.”
Cameron recently told People magazine that “Avatar 3″ is “right on track” for its December 2025 release date. The film has been worked on since before the second movie, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” opened in theaters in December 2022 and became the third-highest grossing film in history with $2.3 billion worldwide. Cameron shot “Avatar 3” and chunks of “Avatar 4” concurrently with “The Way of Water” to ensure age continuity among his characters.
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“We did the [motion capture] capture on three and the live-action photography on three as an intermingled production with [‘Avatar: The Way of Water’], and we even did part of movie four because our young characters are all going to have a big time jump in movie four,” Cameron said. “We 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’t shot yet. So we’ll start on that after three is released.”
Considering Cameron said filming the remainder of “Avatar 4” won’t occur until “Avatar 3” opens, it appears Worthington and the cast might be returning to Cameron’s studio next month for “Avatar 3” post-production needs such as ADR dialogue replacement. Worthington wouldn’t disclose the specifics of his return.
Cameron has the rest of “Avatar 4” and the entirety of “Avatar 5” left to shoot. The third movie was originally going to arrive in 2024, but Disney delayed the franchise and scheduled “Avatar 3” for a Dec. 19, 2025, opening. “Avatar 4” is on track for Dec. 21, 2029, followed by “Avatar 5” on Dec. 19, 2031. Based on this timeline, the final “Avatar” movie will premiere 22 years after the original 2009 blockbuster.
“Three is actually much more straightforward than two,” Cameron told People about the post-production process. “Two, we got hit with the pandemic in the middle of it and we were interrupted, and then we had to reboot and reboot the production and all that sort of thing. And it was a scramble to get it done.”
In an interview last year with GQ magazine, Cameron said that by expanding the story of “Avatar” across numerous films he’s able to craft a franchise that prioritizes its character as much as it does its technological breakthroughs.
“The big [creative] advance in [‘Avatar 3’] is just going to be greater character depth,” Cameron said. “We’re seeing new cultures, new creatures — all the same stuff you’d expect from an ‘Avatar’ movie, but the whole idea of this cycle of films is to live with these people and go on this epic journey with them. So I think it’s not about, ‘We’re going to show you the best water [VFX] ever done’ — but you get more into the heart and soul of the characters. And there’s some very interesting new characters that come in as well. This is a journey over time. It will play out through movie three, into movie four and movie five. There’s an epic cycle to the whole thing.”
Not much is known about “Avatar 3,” including its official title, outside of Cameron teasing that it will introduce a more antagonistic race of Na’vi. Franchise producer Jon Landau told Empire magazine interview last year year that “Avatar 3” will introduce the Ash People, described by the publication as “an aggressive, volcanic race” of Na’vi whose leader is Varang, played by “Game of Thrones” alum and Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter Oona Chaplin.
