James Cameron Teases ‘Avatar 3’ Will Be Even Longer Than ‘The Way Of Water’

The journey is long, and so is the runtime.

James Cameron shared on Friday that the upcoming “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” set to release Dec. 19, 2025, will be even longer than its predecessor 2022’s “The Way Of Water.”

The sequel to Cameron’s first “Avatar” film clocked in at 187 minutes. Comparatively the first film, which hit theaters back in 2009, was 145 minutes. The runtime was hardly Cameron’s concern though, the director explained that originally “Fire and Ash” was not even supposed to happen. In Empire’s latest Path To Pandora dispatch, the acclaimed director and some of the writers talked about the decision to split the second and third installments. 

“In a nutshell, we had too many great ideas packed into act one of movie 2,” Cameron said of his decision to bisect the films. “The [film] was moving like a bullet train, and we were not drilling down enough on character. So I said, ‘Guys, we’ve got to split it.’”

Cameron’s writers room consisted of screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, as well as Josh Friedman, who has been assigned to write “Avatar 4” and Shane Salerno, who has been assigned “Avatar 5.”

“It was spectacular. You’re talking about a character deeply for days and days, and all of a sudden there they are,” Silver told Empire while discussing the newly released character art. She also discussed that by separating “The Way Of Water” and “Fire And Ash” the “characters needed to breathe.” She added that they were real characters and that the “movies are a lot more than just propulsive plot and gorgeous spectacle.”

For the writers, the process was deeply personal. Cameron explained that large parts of the plot are pulled directly from their own experiences. “These characters are amalgams of us, our childhoods, our role as parents, the mistakes we made and probably to some extent continue to make as parents,” the director said. “I mean, Jake is a hard-ass motherf–ker. He’s very hard on his kids. Well, that’s me.”

The first “Avatar” film was released in 2009 and follows U.S. Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) who heads to the alien planet of Pandora to explore it using genetically engineered “avatar” bodies that resemble the native species, the Na’vi. The film surpassed $2 billion at the global box office. The sequel, “The Way Of Water” was released in 2022. “Fire And Ash” is slated to release this December with “Avatar 4” and “Avatar 5” on the way. Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver all star in the series. 

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