It may have been distressing news to Avatar fans to find out the franchise’s next three movies have been delayed. On the bright side, Avatar 3 will be ready for its 2025 release date. Not to mention, production has completed segments of the fourth film. So, why get the ball rolling on a fourth film when we have yet to see a third? According to James Cameron, Avatar 4 will feature a time jump.
Avatar: The Way of Water featured a lot of youngsters as part of the Na’vi and the human world. Jake and Neytiri have two sons, a daughter, and an adopted daughter born from Grace’s avatar. There’s also Spider, a human child frequently hanging out with the Sully family. According to Variety, James Cameron confirmed a time jump in Avatar 4, leading to the crew shooting scenes simultaneously with the second movie.
“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 explained.
Apparently, audiences will go six years into the future when the children are adults. This was all the more reason that schedule-wise, shots of the young actors needed to be prioritized while they were still kids.
“We see them and then we go away for six years and we come back,” revealed Cameron. “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.”
What Can We Expect From Avatar 3?
James Cameron said that when it came to work for Avatar 2, the pandemic made the post-production process frustrating. However, he’s confident Avatar 3 will be a real doozy.
“Three is actually much more straightforward than two,” said Cameron. “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.”
Other than filming completed for the third Avatar film, that’s all we know about the upcoming movie so far. When franchise producer Jon Landau spoke to Empire magazine, he teased a more antagonistic Na’vi clan. Otherwise known as the Ash People, they are described as an “aggressive, volcanic race.” Landau described the purpose of the new Na’vi characters as a way to show the citizens of Pandora can have good and bad in their clan just like humans do.
The Abyss director continued to say what he’s most thrilled for audiences to see is “great character depth.” As we journey with the Sully clan and get to know new characters, we will see character transitions play out within the next three movies.
Get ready for Avatar 3 coming to theaters on December 19th, 2025, Avatar 4 on December 21st, 2029, and Avatar 5 on December 19th, 2031.
