Zoe Saldaña isn’t the queen of the worldwide box office by chance. The actress seriously worked for it, especially when it comes to portraying the iconic Neytiri for the Avatar movies. When CinemaBlend talked to the actress for Fire And Ash about playing the role for the past fifteen years, she flexed on all the things she can do now. And one really stands out.

The Skills Zoe Saldaña Learned For The Avatar Movies

Saldaña’s Na'vi role is done through performance capture, meaning that she actually does physically perform just about every moment in the film – she just looks very different from the final product we see on the big screen. Here’s what she told us about what she can do because of Neytiri:

What can’t she do? You can check out the interview moment in the clip below:

I’m pretty sure Saldaña could survive on her own in Pandora at this point. There’s one acquired skill she named that I want to talk about though.

I Love How One Of Her Skills Has A Neytiri Twist

As she said in our interview, she’s got solid archery proficiency, but it’s not the normal way one would shoot a bow and arrow. Zoe Saldaña knows how to be an archer “the Na’vi way”, which is sideways. What’s interesting about this little fun fact is that apparently shooting a bow and arrow this way is actually way harder and less precise than the typical way people do archery. So when she says she has good aim it's a really awesome flex. Especially, since she probably doesn’t have to target anything on set well if she doesn’t want to.

Zoe Saldaña has been playing Neytiri since she was 28 years old, and by her estimation she’ll be well into her fifties once the last one comes out. The Oscar winner just turned 48 last week, and the trilogy of movies has helped her become the highest-grossing actor of all time with her name on $15.46 billion across her lifetime so far.

Following Fire And Ash’s release during the holiday season, we’re not sure which direction Avatar will go next or if the franchise will “put on the brakes” after earning less money. Currently Avatar 4 and 5 are on the Disney movie release calendar for 2029 and 2031.

Right now you can see Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri in the entire Avatar trilogy at home – on Disney+, digital or physical media.

Whenever a director goes back to change an earlier movie, as James Cameron is thinking about doing with his 1986 classic Aliens, people understandably get nervous. Cameron, who has proven just how popular his 3D work is with the Avatar franchise, believes he can update one of the best sci-fi movies of all time AND one of the best horror movies of all time with his 3D technology, and I’m all for it. Usually, I’m one of the people who doesn’t want to see perfection messed with, but that’s not the case here, because I think Cameron has made smart moves with Aliens.

It Looks Like This Is Happening

More than any other director in Hollywood, James Cameron has leaned into 3D technology. The success of the Avatar series is proof-positive that he knows how to create a movie with it, and he doubled down on that with the concert film he made with Billie Eilish, Hit Me Hard and Soft, which came out earlier this year to rave reviews. While promoting that movie, he spoke with Letterboxd about converting Aliens to 3D. Cameron said:

He said that converting the film could work today because of where the technology is today:

If anyone knows just how far the latest 3D technology can go, it’s Cameron, as he’s been largely responsible for pushing the new tech forward with Avatar. It’s one reason I really trust his idea here, but it’s not the only one.

The Last Time He Tweaked Aliens, It Really Worked

A couple of months ago, I wrote about how I’d never seen the director’s cut of Aliens. When I did finally watch it, I loved it. That’s not always the case for me, either. In fact, it’s way more common that I love the original theatrical version over any director’s cut of a movie I love. While there was one added scene I didn’t care for in Aliens, overall, I do think Cameron’s director’s cut is a better movie. And that’s really saying something about a movie that I think even surpasses the first movie in the series.

It’s for that reason that I trust Cameron here. I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest fan of the Avatar films, and I don’t always love 3D movies, but I don’t think Cameron would mess around with Aliens if he didn’t believe that this could work. He’s a master of film technology, so I have to believe he’s going to do right by the film and its legions of fans like me.

Anytime Leonardo DiCaprio takes on a new role, the chances are high that it’ll be one worth considering for awards buzz, and that’s pretty much been the case for the past 30 years, since he co-starred in one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, James Cameron’s Titanic. Of course, if Leo’s former co-star John C. Reilly had anything to do with it, Kate Winslet’s Rose might have been wooed by a completely different actor as Jack.

DiCaprio teamed up for the first time with Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another, a big winner at this year’s Oscars. But the icons came close-ish to working together in the late ’90s for Boogie Nights, and the actor has voiced some Sliding Doors-esque regrets about not signing on to play Dirk Diggler, a role that went to Mark Wahlberg. Now, Reilly has spoken out about his advisory role in that process, which arguably amounts to some of the worst career guidance imaginable.

Appearing on Ted Danson’s podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name, streaming on YouTube, the actor shared that he thought he was doing a former co-star a solid by steering him clear of working on Titanic. As he put it:

At that point, Anderson's only produced feature was 1996's Hard Eight. And while it was acclaimed upon its release, it didn't exactly eclipse all of James Cameron's previous accomplishments. But John C. Reilly still tried to woo the young actor by playing up the same kind of criticisms that Cameron faced as his production's budget expanded beyond expectations. Namely, that nobody wanted to see that historical tragedy on the big screen. He continued:

To be fair, John C. Reilly also addressed the idea that in 1997, making a breezy Hollywood movie about a well-endowed porn star wasn't exactly the norm, and may not have seemed like the most promising role to DiCaprio, especially when he already had a major part locked down.

The way Reilly puts it, DiCaprio doesn't seem like he was ever truly invested in taking his buddy's advice, especially when it ran counter to all the other counsel he'd been hearing from those hired to guide his career. The Walk Hard actor said:

Interestingly enough, Mark Wahlberg met with James Cameron for Titanic, although he was far more interested in driving around in the director’s Hummer than showing off his acting skills. Less than 10 years later, Wahlberg and DiCaprio shared the screen in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, though I’d love to know if that movie would have still happened had their 1997 movie roles been switched.

DiCaprio is once again working with Scorsese for a psychological horror movie releasing in 2026, What Happens at Night, with Jennifer Lawrence, Mads Mikkelsen and Patricia Clarkson co-starring. Meanwhile, John C. Reilly will next be seen in the upcoming action movie How to Rob a Bank from John Wick’s David Leitch. Maybe we’ll hear one day that Reilly tried to talk Keanu Reeves out of playing that franchise’s vengeful hitman.

Latest episode of the Fans can find Titanic streaming via Paramount+ subscription, so if it’s been a while since you’ve seen that ol’ movie about a boat sinking, look no further.

I’ve probably seen Aliens a couple of dozen times in my life, but until recently, I hadn’t watched one of the best sci-fi movies ever in one sitting in at least a couple of decades, and I’d never seen the director’s cut. Until just last week, it was available with an HBO Max subscription. James Cameron released it in 1991 on Laser Disc only (I never had one of those). I’ll just say upfront, I wish I hadn’t waited so long. While I love the theatrical cut, this version is definitely better in almost every way. There was one backstory I loved being included in, but there was another I was less enthusiastic about.

Ripley Backstory Makes The Movie So Much Better

There is about 20 minutes more movie in the Aliens Director’s Cut, and most of that time is spent on two scenes. The first is Ripley’s recovery after being found floating in space after 57 years at the beginning. In a conversation with Burke (Paul Reiser), it’s revealed that Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) had a daughter when she left Earth in the first movie of the franchise, Alien. She (and we) also learned that her daughter had died two years before at age 66.

This informs so much more about Ripley than the original theatrical cut and makes her relationship with Newt (Carrie Henn) later in the movie more visceral. It totally changes the dynamic in that final confrontation with the queen alien, much more potent, as well, as two mothers come to an understanding with each other. I really don’t understand how this was ever removed from the original cut. It makes the movie so much better.

Newt’s Backstory Took Some Mystery Away

On the other hand, there is another backstory that wasn’t included in the original, that of Newt and her family. In fact, we get a lot more of the colonists on LV-426, seeing their lives on the planet before they were decimated by the aliens. A big part of this time is spent with Newt, her brother, and their parents as they head outside of the base to investigate the crashed ship. It’s where we first see the alien and how they get into the base in the first place.

I was pretty disappointed by this. Not because it wasn’t well shot, or well told. I just love the mystery of Newt that is presented in the original cut. We only know what happened to her family and the other colonists through her descriptions. Aliens is as much a sci-fi-horror flick as it is one of the best action movies ever, and the mystery is so much more effective than seeing what actually happened. It’s a cool scene, for sure, but it takes away something from the overall story, rather than adding to it like Ripley’s backstory.

I understand why James Cameron feels that this is the definitive version of Aliens (still the best movie in the franchise). Sometimes director’s cuts are just self-indulgent slop (I’m looking at you, Apocalypse Now Redux), but that is not the case here. It’s a better movie with these included scenes, but I would have loved it even more if the mystery of Newt’s backstory stayed the same.

I consider myself a casual Billie Eilish fan, in that I'm familiar with her hits and recognize that she has an incredible voice, but that's mainly the extent of it. My interest in Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) was a combination of curiosity about the musician and her tour, and James Cameron's involvement in the making of the movie.

The idea that Cameron and Eilish were teaming up to direct and produce a 3D concert film caught my attention from the first trailer. That's what got me into my seat for a screening of the new 2026 movie, but what I took away from the experience was more than just an appreciation for a concert film shown in 3D. I also learned that Billie Eilish is truly a performer for the fans.

What She Was Made For

Maybe suggesting Eilish is a performer for the fans sounds obvious, or maybe most performers like to think that they do what they do for the people who show up to see them, but my impression of Eilish as I watched the Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour concert film was that it's important that she sets the bar by her own standards when it comes to her fans. In fact, the exact phrase she used, which really stuck with me, was:

I don't think I'd fault any mega-star if their primary career aspiration was to maintain their mega-star status. As someone who prefers not to be in the limelight, I just assume there's something in the DNA or brain chemistry of many performers that causes them to shine brighter in front of an audience. Maybe that's part of what motivates Eilish, I couldn't say, but when she shows off the scrape on her hand, and we see her putting herself in arm's length (and grabby-hands'-length) of her fans during her show, it really seems like she has more of a symbiotic relationship with the people who come to see her sing. Satisfying them satisfies her.

She even admitted, when talking about the enthusiastic way people reach for her, that she would've been the same way if an artist she loved was close enough to touch. She knows what they're feeling, and that's something special, I think. It's the biggest thing I took away from the movie, in fact. (Though I would encourage fans to maybe consider trimming their nails if they're hoping to get a chance to touch her during a future concert?)

Other Impressions:

• I loved the parts of the film shot amidst/behind the crowd. There were moments when I felt like I was actually behind a group of screaming fans with their hands in the air. 
• I got tired just watching Billie run around that giant stage. 
• A room full of rescue dogs provided as a mood lift for her team?! ❤️😭
• The scene where she records the looped vocals was so beautiful. 
• As an outsider of the fandom, I appreciated James Cameron's curious approach to showcasing what Billie Eilish does. 
• I love seeing how emotional Billie's fans get at her shows. As a Swiftie, I get it! 
• I need to add more Billie Eilish to my playlists.

I'll close this out by saying that I really hope we continue to see more concert movies, especially featuring big artists like Billie Eilish. Not everyone can afford to see their favorite artist live, and there are plenty of people who would love the opportunity to see the show again, even if they can. What's more, casual fans like me have the opportunity to really see an artist do their thing and learn more about them. I only knew a couple of the songs performed during the film (the obvious ones: "Bad Guy," "Birds of a Feather," etc.), but I still had a great time watching the movie and came away from it with a deeper appreciation of who she is as an artist.

It’s been nearly 30 years since Jack and Rose sailed into our lives aboard Titanic, with all of their “You jump, I jump” and “I’ll never let go.” While James Cameron isn’t too shabby himself as a filmmaker, he absolutely struck gold with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as his leads, and it turns out the latter may have tried to tip the scales in her favor by sending the director a very sweet, very appropriate gift.

James Cameron was asked about letters or items that he’s received from actors to help them land a role in one of his epically high-grossing movies, and while he denied that such a thing would actually have much pull with him, he did recall Kate Winslet making a move. Cameron told ET:

I think that’s actually the sweetest gift, and as someone who loves Titanic, I love that she cared enough to fight for the role of Rose. James Cameron shot down the idea that the flower was what got her the part in what would become one of the best movies of the ‘90s — I’m sure Kate Winslet would rather it have been for her talent anyway — but it doesn’t sound like showing the director how passionate she was about Rose hurt her chances at all.

Plenty of behind-the-scenes facts about Titanic have come out over the past three decades, including how close Leonardo DiCaprio came to backing out of the movie. James Cameron knows how fragile the operation was, and if just one thing had changed — especially his lead actor and actress — the whole thing could have fallen apart.

The casting process for Titanic was reportedly a long one, and many big names were allegedly considered for Jack and Rose. Can you imagine Matthew McConnaughey as Jack Dawson? (“Alright, alright, alright, move over and let me on that door now.”) What about Johnny Depp or Paul Rudd? It would have been a completely different movie! For Rose, other actresses who were reportedly being considered included Uma Thurman and Winona Ryder.

Alas, it was Kate Winslet, who thankfully nailed it into James Cameron’s brain with a gift and note to let him know, “I am your Rose,” and to this day it’s considered one of Winslet’s best roles.

If you want to relive Jack and Rose’s love story, the tragedy of the “unsinkable” ship, or just renew the great Titanic door debate, the 1997 James Cameron classic is available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription.

Meanwhile, if you’d rather check out what the director is up to these days, catch Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), which is playing in theaters now.

After months of hearing about Billie Eilish and James Cameron teaming up for a 3D concert film, Hit Me Hard And Soft: The Tour is here among the releases on the 2026 movie schedule. It's fair to say both Cameron and Eilish have committed themselves to major projects over the course of their careers. Just look at all the work Cameron put into Avatar, for instance. However, as CinemaBlend learned from the pair themselves, the the process of making this concert movie was something else entirely.

Hit Me Hard and Soft came to fruition after James Cameron decided to pitch the idea via email to Billie Eilish’s mom, Maggie Baird, whom he was already acquainted with. From there, Cameron and Billie connected over the phone about what they could make together. Ultimately, the film was shot during Eilish’s four Manchester shows, which were held in July of 2025. As for what stood out from the experience for Cameron, the acclaimed filmmaker told me this:

The Oscar-winning James Cameron has directed some monumental films over the years in addition to the Avatar franchise. Terminator, Aliens and Titanic are just a few of the other marquee titles the filmmaker can lay claim to. But, in a rare moment in his career, Cameron shared the title of director with the 24-year-old "Bad Guy" singer to translate her vision of the world stadium tour to her fans. The Abyss helmer also said this about his process of working with Eilish:

If you’re familiar with the way Eilish and Cameron work, then you probably know they are very detail oriented and focused on making sure everything is right for audiences. So it would track that these two would spend so much time in the editing room looking over the footage from a two-hour show to make sure everything was just right. While someone might think the making of a concert film might be more lax than something like Avatar, it sounds almost as involved based on further comments from Cameron:

As for Billie Eilish, she's cited her love for Justin Bieber’s concert movies for being one of the factors that inspired her to make her own (aside from literally getting flagged down by James Cameron, of course). And, funny enough, a few days after this interview that viral Coachella moment between her and Bieber happened.

During our interview, the co-directors also talked about what they learned from each other while making the movie. Cameron said he came to understand the importance of Billie Eilish’s fans, while she said she learned a lot about directing for film as opposed to doing so for a live audience. I'm not sure many people could've predicted these two would end up working together, but I'm so glad this partnership happened.

Check out Hit Me Hard And Soft: The Tour (Live In 3D), in all its glory, in theaters now.

Over this past holiday season, James Cameron’s highly anticipated third Avatar movie hit theaters. Avatar: Fire and Ash ended its box office run with a $1.49 billion global haul, becoming one of the biggest hits of the year. Now, the fourth film in this series is currently on Walt Disney Studios’ release calendar for a 2029 release, but how far along is Avatar 4 after Cameron said it is "very likely" to happen? One star just shared an update.

Trinity Jo-Li Bliss plays the role of Tuk, who is the youngest of Jake and Neytiri’s children in the franchise. When speaking to The Direct at the Saturn Awards, the actress said this about how much of Avatar 4 has been filmed so far:

We’ve heard before from Cameron and some of the cast that some of Avatar 4 was shot while they were in production on Way of Water and Fire and Ash, but this update from Bliss definitely offers more insight about what exactly was filmed. It doesn’t sound like that much of the untitled sequel was shot, but Cameron was smart to make sure the cast did sequences prior to a reported eight-year time jump that he had planned for Avatar 4 and 5. Bliss also said this:

What’s wild is that the Avatar sequels were predominantly shot from 2017 to 2020, and stars like Trinity Jo-Li Bliss had to wait until last year to see the final product for Fire and Ash. During this new interview, the 16-year-old said that while Way of Water and Fire and Ash were “basically one story,” the next two planned installments are going to be a “whole new chapter” should they officially go into production.

The reason why Avatar 4’s production isn’t surefire despite making over a billion at the box office reportedly has to do with how much it costs to make these movies. Cameron told CinemaBlend back in December that he’s “artistically” ready to make more Avatar movies, but he’d have to “evaluate” how well Fire And Ash does.

He also spoke about other projects he wants to work on that have nothing to do with Avatar. Since there’s been a decline in box office returns with the franchise, the filmmaker has also previously talked about figuring out “how to bring costs down” for future installments.

One major win about Fire and Ash was the introduction of the villain Varang, who has quickly become a fan favorite among audiences. When talking about Avatar 4 in March, James Cameron discussed wanting to have the character to be “written up a bit more” than he may have originally intended.

So, now, while we wait and see about Avatar 4, James Cameron just co-directed a concert movie with Billie Eilish called Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), which hits theaters on May 8.

If you’re one of the lucky fans who’ve been to a Billie Eilish concert, you know how special that experience is. There’s nothing quite like being in the pop star’s presence in real time alongside other people who’ve memorized the lyrics and been touched by her music, too. In less than two weeks, a lot more fans will be able to witness the energy around a Billie Eilish concert, however. Hit Me Hard And Soft: The Tour (Live In 3D) arrives in theaters as one of the more unique 2026 movie releases.

CinemaBlend had the chance to chat with Billie Eilish and James Cameron after the co-directors debuted the movie’s 3D experience at Las Vegas’s CinemaCon. During my chat with the pop singer, Eilish shared told me how having the director of the Avatar films by her side for this taught her about moviemaking. In her words:

Billie Eilish has put out a concert film before, but the scale was much smaller considering it was filmed at the Hollywood Bowl during the COVID-19 pandemic without a live audience and released on Disney+. This time around she brought James Cameron along to film the four shows she played at Manchester’s Co-op Live in July 2025 with 3D cameras to bring her shows to life. As Eilish also shared:

The 24-year-old has been in the directors chair before for a number of her music videos including “What Was I Made For?”, “Happier Than Ever,” “Lost Cause,” and “Therefore I Am.” Capturing a massive show full of over 20k people is a very different story and it sounds like there was a learning curve for her that she was noticing on the fly. While she had instincts in place for making the live show entertaining for everyone, capturing it as a movie meant different choices needed to be made. As the singer added:

Billie Eilish definitely has a great reputation for breaking boundaries when it comes to releasing her music – with how her Hit Me Hard And Soft album cover was photographed being just one of them. She’s also frequently involved fans in the experience with things like holding listening parties in theaters for the album as well. Her and James Cameron connecting to direct this concert movie feels like simultaneously an unlikely pair and makes all the sense in the world.

You can get tickets for Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard And Soft: The Tour (Live In 3D), hitting theaters starting May 8.

There was a time when a movie making $1.4 billion worldwide would be treated like an unquestioned victory lap. Parade, confetti, maybe a theme park ride or two. With Avatar: Fire and Ash, the reaction has been a little more complicated. Yes, it made a massive amount of money. No, it didn’t hit the same towering heights as the earlier films. And now, instead of a straightforward “what’s next,” Disney and James Cameron are taking a moment to reassess what the future of Pandora actually looks like.

According to reporting from The Wrap, even Cameron has acknowledged that the next steps aren’t locked in, noting that a continuation is “likely but not 100%.” Behind the scenes, there are already conversations about how to make future entries shorter, more cost-effective, and a bit less risky to produce.

How Expectations Impacted Avatar: Fire & Ash’s Box Office

Part of what affected the third entry's box office performance was expectations. The original Avatar remains the highest-grossing movie of all time. Avatar: The Way of Water cleared more than $2 billion. That’s the standard Cameron set for himself.

So when Fire and Ash comes in closer to $1.4 billion, it creates a strange kind of perception problem. On paper, it’s a massive hit. In context, it looks like a step down. As Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore, put it:

“High-class problems,” they may be, but they’re still problems when you’re dealing with production budgets that reportedly hover around $350 million, plus marketing. The math gets tighter, even at that level.

This is all before you factor in shifting audience habits. The theatrical experience isn’t what it was in 2009, and even major franchises aren’t immune to that reality.

Disney’s Looking to Adjust The Way They Produce Avatar Films

One of the biggest takeaways from the current reporting is that Disney isn’t looking to abandon Avatar, but rather to adjust how installments in the franchise are produced.

That means finding ways to make future entries more efficient without losing what makes them feel like Avatar franchise installments in the first place. Easier said than done, considering how complex these productions are. The films rely on multiple layers of performance capture, digital environments, and years of post-production work involving hundreds of artists.

There’s also the question of scale. These movies have always been built as full theatrical events, the kind that practically demand the biggest screen possible—pulling back too far risks losing what makes them special.

At the same time, Disney is clearly weighing its broader portfolio. Marvel has been recalibrating after a rough stretch. Star Wars is trying a different approach with the upcoming The Mandalorian & Grogu. Pixar has been leaning into sequels, such as the 2026 calendar release of Toy Story 5. Nothing is operating on autopilot right now.

What Happens Next With Avatar

The interesting part is that, despite all this uncertainty, Avatar isn’t exactly going anywhere. Scripts for future films are already written. Portions of new installments have reportedly been shot. And internally, there’s still a belief that the franchise has long-term value, whether that’s through streaming, physical releases, or theme park expansions.

There’s even talk that Cameron might push forward more aggressively after Fire and Ash, treating it less like a slowdown and more like a reset. If anything, this could be the moment where the franchise pivots rather than fades.

Still, the bigger takeaway here is how much the definition of “success” has changed. A billion-dollar movie used to guarantee the next chapter. Now, not so much.

As we wait and see what comes next for the world of Pandora, there are always the first three installments, which are streaming with a Disney+ subscription.

It’s the job of the Avatar filmmakers to make us believe Pandora exists when we watch James Cameron’s films, but wow, is it a grueling process to do so! CinemaBlend just got the chance to go to Lightstorm Entertainment in Manhattan Beach, California earlier this week to learn how those blue aliens get made thanks to the art of performance capture, and we got schooled by Fire And Ash producer Rae Sanchini.

While we were there, we witnessed a live camera demo with VFX supervisor Richard Baneham on the same stage where the likes of Zoë Saldana, Kate Winslet and Sigourney Weaver did their performances with dots on their faces during the production of Fire And Ash. We also sat down with Sanchini, and here’s what the producer had to say about performance capture:

After being at the studio in person, I can finally say I have an understanding of the process myself. But even with that said, I’m mind-blown over the whole thing. As Sanchini spoke, it all starts with the actors coming together to film the scenes on a massive soundstage in Manhattan Beach with performance capture suits on. As she continued to explain:

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend watching the bonus features of the Avatar movies. Fire And Ash just dropped on digital, and if you buy a copy, you’ll also get over three hours of bonus features that cover the making of these movies from every stage. Before we go on with Sanchini’s comments, take a look at this visual slideshow of how it’s done:

While a typical movie shoot involves the filmmakers setting up how every shot will look like and shooting a series of close ups, longshots and so forth with the actors, it’s very different for Avatar. A bunch of cameras film them all at the same time like they are literally living each moment, except they look kind of ridiculous. As Sanchini added:

Jack Champion, a.k.a. Spider, had it even harder because he had to shoot his scenes twice: for motion capture with the rest of the cast and then in live-action in New Zealand since his character is human. Anyways, once the actors have filmed their scenes, James Cameron and the other editors will go through all the takes and start editing the movie into a “performance edit” out of the best moments from the coverage. They’ll send that over to VFX, which creates a “template” of how they look in Pandora. I’ll let Sanchini take it from there with these words:

Once that’s all done, the Avatar movies move to a new phase of post-production at WETA FX back in New Zealand where the movies become what we saw in theaters over the holiday season. Pretty cool, right? You can watch Fire And Ash at home right now, and check out what Oona Chaplin told us about the making of the film as well here on CinemaBlend.

Avatar: Fire and Ash made $1 billion at the global box office, but it seems that a billion dollars doesn’t go quite as far as it used to. Even before the film had opened, James Cameron seemed to be managing expectations, indicating it was a real question when, or even if, the previously announced Avatar 4 and 5 might actually happen.

We still haven’t heard anything about the next two Avatar movies, but some recent comments from producer Rae Sanchini to ScreenRant would seem to indicate that production on those films, as well as the highly-anticipated Fantastic Voyage remake, might not be far off. She said…

Sanchini’s statement could be read to mean that the final two Avatar movies are happening, it's just a question of exactly when. This is certainly the most positive statement about the movies that we’ve heard in recent months. However, until we get an announcement on when production is starting, we can’t know for sure. Still, this has to be seen as a good sign for fans who want to see the Avatar franchise wrap up.

That doesn’t mean we’re going to be seeing the films anytime soon. As Rae Sanchini points out, the reason work would need to get started soon is that it’s a very long process. Avatar 4 is currently on the upcoming Disney movie calendar for a December 2029 release, and Avatar 5 is supposed to hit two years after that. For the movies to hit those dates, things will need to get started soon.

This is because the expectation is that the next two Avatar movies will be filmed at the same time, so the actual shooting schedule will be twice as long as that of your average blockbuster. On top of that, since every single frame of the movies will need post-production digital effects, that process will take a long time.

Of course, Rae Sanchini also mentioned the other James Cameron projects that he has “kicking around,” and Cameron himself has indicated that he may want to do some things other than Avatar in the future. That could be an indication that he’s not looking to jump right into more movies set on Pandora, or it could indicate a hope to get those movies done quickly so he has more time to focus on other things.

Hopefully all this means that news about the last two Avatar movies is coming soon. The title of Avatar 3 was revealed at D23 two years ago. Perhaps this year’s event will reveal the franchise's future.

When we talk about the Avatar movies, the cutting-edge and award-winning visual effects understandably are the hero of the story the most often. But, when CinemaBlend had a chance to visit James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment in Manhattan Beach, California, this week, the actress behind Fire And Ash fan-favorite Varang pointed out one behind-the-scenes detail that’s quite jaw-dropping.

Oona Chaplin embodied the leader of the Mangkwan (aka the Ash People) for the third Avatar film through performance capture. When I asked the actor about an element of making these movies that still blows her away, she pointed out this fact about one aspect of the production you may have missed. In her words:

Of course, writer/director James Cameron and the other filmmakers across all facets of the production are tasked with creating the believable world of Pandora for us to escape into. But the fact that the movie’s composer also took the time to create brand new instruments for a sequence that ultimately lasts less than a minute of the 3-hour-and-17-minute flick is pretty wild when you think about it. She spoke about it in more detail:

The Avatar movies really are amazing, aren’t they? After the latest installment of the franchise ruled the holiday season box office, Fire and Ash has just arrived on digital platforms. If you’re like me and are amazed by the behind-the-scenes of these movies with stories such as this one, the new release also involves over three hours of never-before-seen bonus features to add more awe to how it was made.

While Oona Chaplin’s character is thought of as the new bad guy in Fire and Ash, she has spoken before about how Varang is thought of as the “hero of her people” following the Ash People going through a natural disaster that made them go “Well, fuck Ewya”.

James Cameron updated fans that Avatar 4 isn’t yet official, but he has spoken out about his desire to make Varang “a little more [prominent]” should it happen. With that in mind, perhaps those instruments, along with more facets of Ash People culture, will be explored further? Oona Chaplin has also teased “so many cool possibilities moving forward” for her character.

As the movie is now available to watch at home, you can check out our Avatar: Fire and Ash review and check out what blockbusters are on the way on the 2026 movie calendar here on CinemaBlend.

The 98th Academy Awards, which we covered extensively on our live-blog, have come and gone, and among the 2026 Oscar winners was beloved director Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another. With PTA’s win, an Oscar’s connection pops up that actually makes you stop and think. One very specific thing links the first Oscar wins of three wildly different directors: Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, and Paul Thomas Anderson. And no, it’s not a shared genre, a studio, or even a similar style.

All three filmmakers earned their first (and, so far, only) Academy Awards for movies starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Once you see it laid out, it’s hard to ignore. Their connection comes from these movies starring the former teen heartthrob:

• The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
• Titanic (James Cameron)
• One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Three directors. Three very different careers. One surprisingly consistent through-line. DiCaprio.

The Leo Pattern Is Hard To Ignore

To be clear, these directors are not in the same position regarding their Award wins, though each of them, in my opinion, could be categorized as shocking Oscar wins.

Martin Scorsese famously had to wait decades before winning Best Director for 2007's The Departed, despite building one of the most respected filmographies in cinema history.

James Cameron, on the other hand, didn’t just win for Titanic; he dominated the Oscars with it, which led to his now infamous 'I'm the King of the World' speech. While his other films, like Avatar, have won Academy Awards across his career, his first major breakthrough and the only time he personally took home trophies came with a DiCaprio-led film.

The same goes for Paul Thomas Anderson. After years of critical acclaim and multiple nominations, One Battle After Another finally got him over the finish line, as he won Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay. (Though I would hardly categorize it as one of PTA's best movies.) Like Cameron, his movies have won Oscars (Daniel Day-Lewis won for his performance in There Will Be Blood, for example). However, PTA's personal trophies didn't come to him until he worked with DiCaprio on OBAA.

So while their careers look very different on paper, there’s a strange overlap in how their Oscar stories actually played out.

The Leonardo DiCaprio Factor

What makes this even more ironic is Leo’s own Oscar history. Despite being at the center of these major wins, he only has one Academy Award himself, and it's for The Revenant. And notably, that win has nothing to do with any of the films that helped these directors secure their Oscars.

In other words, the Inception actor has been a key part of multiple Oscar-winning moments for directors, without personally winning for those same projects. That’s kind of wild.

It also says something about the roles he chooses. The Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood lead has built a career around working with filmmakers at pivotal moments, whether that’s helping bring massive projects like Titanic to life or collaborating on prestige films like The Departed and One Battle After Another.

He’s consistently in the mix when something big is happening, even if the awards don’t always land directly in his hands.

It’s easy to write this off as a quirky stat, but it also highlights how certain collaborations shape awards history in ways that aren’t always obvious. DiCaprio has spent years aligning himself with ambitious directors, and those partnerships have clearly paid off, even beyond his own accolades.

Three directors with multiple Oscars between them, and in each case, a Leonardo DiCaprio-led film played a key role in getting them there, especially when it came to that first big win. At the very least, it’s one of those connections that would make an awesome little piece of trivia at your next Oscar night party.

This year's best picture winner and the movie that got Paul Thomas Anderson his first Oscar, One Battle After Another, is streaming with an HBO Max subscription.

James Cameron movies are known for their massive scale and cutting-edge technology. The Avatar films (which are streaming with a Disney+ subscription) are certainly no exception in either regard, and fans are still waiting to hear if a fourth movie is actually happening following Fire and Ash's box office performance. But the visionary filmmaker has a vision for where he wants to take the story if another blockbuster is greenlit.

Back in December Cameron told CinemaBlend that he was "artistically ready" to continue the story of Pandora in a fourth Avatar movie. But there's yet to be any confirmation that the director will get to actually shoot the final two chapters of his planned five-movie story. During a press conference at the Saturn Awards (via ScreenRant) the director was asked if he has changes to the narrative in mind after Fire and Ash. He responded with:

While James Cameron reportedly wrote Avatar 4 and 5, Disney hasn't actually ordered those two titles to be produced just yet. Both fans and the filmmaker himself are left waiting and hoping that the House of Mouse allows for the story of Pandora to get its original planned conclusion. Fingers crossed.

After seeing Fire and Ash, some Avatar fans want to see more of Varang in the possible sequels. During the same press conference Cameron mentioned that fan favorite character, who was played to perfection by Oona Chaplin. As he put it:

Varang lead the Ash People in Avatar 3, a Tribe of Na'Vi who turned their back on Eywa following a natural disaster on Pandora. Her relationship with Quaritch brought both drama and comedy to the threequel, and her survival at the end of Fire and Ash has left the door open for her to return.

While James Cameron has his full five-movie story planned, he's still seemingly being influenced by the way fans are responding to the Avatar movies. While Varang will be back if/when a fourth movie is greenlit, he also revealed that reception for The Way of Water led him to put a focus on another character. He said:

Clearly Cameron is paying attention to the comments section, and seeing how moviegoers are responding to each Avatar film. But we'll just have to wait and see if the studio commits to the fourth movie to see how Fire and Ash responses influence the storytelling.

The first two Avatar movies are streaming now on Disney+. It's currently unclear when Fire and Ash will arrive on streaming and home release, but fans are not-so-patiently waiting.

Months after Netflix’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery was announced, many within Hollywood are continuing to discuss the potential impact it could have. Opinions have varied in regard to the merits of the agreement, and some individuals haven’t held back when sharing their thoughts. Filmmaker James Cameron has since weighed in, and he didn’t hold back when dropping his take. Since then, actor Mark Ruffalo has responded to Cameron’s comments, and he did so by posing a question of his own.

Cameron recently wrote a letter to Utah Senator Mike Lee, who leads the U.S. Senate’s subcommittee on antitrust and is analyzing the WB/Netflix deal. In his letter, Cameron asserted that the proposed deal would “be disastrous for the theatrical motion picture business”. A big concern for Cameron is the prospect of the streamer shortening the theatrical window for Warner Bros. films. The Avatar helmer claimed the streamer wanted to decrease the window to 17 days (which is a claim Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos denies).

The Titanic director’s comments eventually went viral, and Ruffalo was among those to see them. When responding to Cameron’s sentiments on X, Ruffalo expressed curiosity about the filmmaker’s thoughts on another aspect of this ongoing business situation:

What the Marvel actor is alluding to is the fact that Paramount Skydance has also been vying to acquire Warner Bros., even in the aftermath of the company’s leaders accepting Netflix’s almost $83 billion bid. The last couple of years have seen Paramount go through immense changes, specifically in terms of the Skydance merger that was completed in 2025. When it comes to this particular matter, Ruffalo appears to be questioning whether Cameron would give the same energy if Paramount were in the position to own WB.

Even ahead of the attempts from Paramount Skydance’s big brass to acquire WB, the media conglomerate was already making headlines. The David Ellison-led company has been implementing changes to its approach to content, including that of CBS News. Some analysts have argued that some of those changes reflect politically right-leaning ideologies and, with that, there’s been speculation about what that could mean for WB if Paramount acquired it.

As far as reactions to the Netflix/WB deal go, a few other filmmakers have chimed in as James Cameron has. Directors Guild of America President Christopher Nolan discussed what a “huge blow” it would be for a major studio to get folded into another. Anora director Sean Baker also spoke out about the agreement and declared that filmmakers should be seeking increased theatrical release windows.

Netflix’s Ted Sarandos has sought to set the record straight on his company’s intentions, as he’s stressed that a 45-day window would be in effect should WB be brought into the fold. When responding to Cameron’s letter with one of his own, Sarandos also claimed he and Cameron were on the same page when the latter met with his company in December. At the same time, Netflix execs have chastised Paramount’s attempts (which include a hostile takeover) to acquire WB. In January, Paramount also filed a lawsuit in an attempt to get Netflix to share financial information regarding its reason for wanting to buy Warner Bros.

Time will tell how all of this ultimately pans out for Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix and Paramount Skydance as time goes on. All the while, it can only be speculated as to whether James Cameron will offer a direct response to Mark Ruffalo’s inquiry.

One of the biggest topics of discussion within Hollywood over the past few months has been Netflix’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery. Ultimately, WB accepted the streamer’s near-$83 billion bid, though Paramount Skydance is still making efforts to acquire the studio itself. All the while, many industry professionals have been weighing in on the potential ramifications of the deal, and director James Cameron recently shared some blunt thoughts. With that, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos issued a response to the filmmaker's take.

What Did James Cameron Say About The WB/Netflix Deal?

Cameron recently wrote a letter to Utah senator Mike Lee, who oversees the Senate’s subcommittee on antitrust. Lee and that governing body held a hearing earlier this month, during which they discussed the potential effects of the WB/Netflix merger with Sarandos. When addressing Lee, Cameron didn’t hold back his feelings and cited Sarandos for calling movie theaters “an outdated concept” and an “outmoded idea.” Cameron also shared the following thoughts on the matter:

Throughout his career, James Cameron has championed quality theatrical experiences, and his comments seem to mirror concerns that some of his other peers seem to have about the WB sale. Something that seems to give the Avatar filmmaker pause is the notion of a very small theatrical window and, in his letter (which was shared with Deadline), he claimed Ted Sarandos and co. wanted to commit to a 17-day window for films to play in theaters. Sarandos responded to that claim and shared more sentiments when issuing his reaction.

How Ted Sarandos Responded To James Cameron’s Criticisms

Just recently, Sarandos also wrote a letter of his own to Mike Lee in response to Cameron’s take on his company’s multi-billion dollar deal. Sarandos showed reverence to Cameron early in his letter (which Deadline obtained) and also expressed his love for Cameron’s filmography. However, the exec went on to weigh in on why the Oscar winner’s claims were inaccurate:

Ted Sarandos also shared alleged details regarding the meeting he and his colleagues at Netflix had with James Cameron after the deal was announced in December 2025. And, according to Sarandos, Cameron was supposedly more interested in discussing another topic than theatrical windows:

Sarandos also expressed his displeasure with Cameron’s letter while appearing on the Fox Business program The Claman Countdown. The co-CEO, who’s spoken about the viability of movie theaters in the past, said he was “particularly surprised and disappointed that James chose to be part of the Paramount disinformation campaign that's been going on for months about this deal.”

Paramount is indeed still trying to buy Warner Bros. Discovery months after the David Ellison-headed company tried to launch a hostile takeover bid. That attempt as well as subsequent bids have been rejected. More recently, Paramount filed a lawsuit in an attempt to have Netflix disclose financial information regarding its decision to buy WB. Netflix execs subsequently chastised Paramount Skydance for its continued attempts to derail the WB deal.

All the while, filmmakers still seem to be processing the prospect of Netflix acquiring Warner Bros. Oscar-winning director Sean Baker reacted to the deal, saying that “filmmakers have to put our foot down” in the hope of expanding theatrical windows. Directors Guild of America President Christopher Nolan also expressed uncertainty about the road head. Time will tell how this major deal plays out and how other directors like Nolan or James Cameron might respond.

James Cameron doesn’t make small movies. That’s part of his brand. But with the recently released Avatar: Fire and Ash nearing the end of its theatrical run, at $1.4 billion globally, some industry observers are starting to ask: Is Pandora losing altitude? As we head full steam into the third month of the 2026 movie schedule, it's worth looking into whether or not it's time to 'pump the brakes' on more Avatar flicks.

According to a recent Variety report, the third Avatar installment will finish well below the "two metric f---tons" of money the director was aiming for, the staggering $2.9 billion earned by 2009’s Avatar and the $2.3 billion hauled in by 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water. While $1.4 billion would be a career-defining hit for most filmmakers, it’s a more complicated story here, given that the film stacks up with some of the most expensive movies ever made. Disney reportedly spent around $500 million to produce and market the threequel. As Wedbush Securities analyst Alicia Reese put it bluntly:

Disney, of course, has already committed to two more sequels, slated for 2029 and 2031. But analysts suggest the studio may be rethinking how much it’s willing to spend. As Stephen Galloway, dean of Chapman University’s film school, explained it:

From Terminator 2 to Titanic to every Avatar installment, Cameron has built a career on pushing budgets to historic highs. He’s also built a reputation for turning those risks into box office gold. He remains the only director with four consecutive billion-dollar hits, three of which crossed $2 billion.

But many viewers and critics alike felt that the third film was less essential. The original Avatar films dominated the box office for seven consecutive weekends. Fire and Ash relinquished its top spot after five. Some critics and analysts have also noted that the technological leap forward, once the franchise’s defining feature, didn’t feel as dramatic this time around.

There’s also the release timing. Unlike the 13-year gap between the first two films, Fire and Ash arrived three years after The Way of Water. That shorter window may have reduced the sense of event-level anticipation.

Still, Reese doesn’t think Cameron should be underestimated. The analyst added:

If history tells us anything, it’s that betting against James Cameron rarely works out. That said, with budgets climbing and returns dipping, Disney may be looking more closely at the math this time around. Pandora isn’t in crisis, but the pressure to justify another half-billion-dollar investment is very real.

It’s also important to remember that Avatar: Fire and Ash wasn’t just a box office player. The film earned a 2026 Academy Award nomination for Visual Effects and a nod for Costume Design. As we recently noted, Deborah L. Scott’s work combined traditional design techniques with advanced digital craftsmanship, reinforcing how the franchise continues to redefine large-scale filmmaking. So, even if it brought in less money, the Avatar series still carries prestige, which will undoubtedly be a factor in whether more movies are greenlit.

For now, Avatar: Fire and Ash remains in theaters and is expected to hit VOD sometime in March or April. Whether a fourth film moves forward remains to be seen. In the meantime, fans can revisit the first two chapters with their Disney+ subscription.

The Avatar franchise is, if nothing else, a technical achievement. The things that it does with motion capture technology, digital effects, and theatrical 3D are truly incredible, and unlike anything any other movies are doing today. For that reason, it was pretty much expected that Fire and Ash would be nominated for an Oscar in Visual Effects, which it was. However, the film’s other nomination was a bit more surprising to me, as it was in the field of Costume Design.

The Oscar nominees for Costume Design usually go to people who design and create the physical outfits worn by actors in films. Anyone who has seen a behind-the-scenes shot of an Avatar production knows that what the actors wear on set is usually limited to what looks like a sweat suit and a large camera rig on their faces. All the costumes are created digitally. However, after seeing THR’s conversation with costume designer Deborah L. Scott, it all makes a lot more sense.

While the final product that you see on screen may be entirely digital, it turns out that the process of designing and crafting a costume for Avatar: Fire and Ash isn’t all that different from doing it for a traditional live-action film. Scott explained…

Scott, who previously won an Oscar for designing the costumes for James Cameron’s Titanic, explains that her designs for Avatar start with a pencil and paper, just like they would for any film. Costume samples are also created physically so that they can be accurately scanned by the digital artists at Weta. Once the samples are in the computer, the work continues digitally, and Scott is still involved in fine-tuning the design.

There are some benefits to doing costume design on a digital production. Physical costumes all need to be designed and created before filming begins. Scott reveals that some costume elements for Avatar: Fire and Ash, like those for Oona Chaplin's Varang, weren’t created until later, after she saw the way certain actors carried themselves on set, which gave her inspiration for certain looks.

At the same time, because the costume design for Avatar is both physical and digital, there’s arguably a lot more work going on in the design process to get everything just right. Scott is clear that there is nothing different in costume for Avatar compared to other films, and she’s glad the Oscars recognized that, saying…

It certainly does feel like we’ve entered a new era of costume design. It’s just another place where the Avatar franchise has clearly changed moviemaking forever.

S.S. Rajamouli is widely known as the biggest director in Indian cinema right now, but since the success of RRR he’s become a global sensation. Between its theatrical release, the record number of viewers who watched it with a Netflix subscription and its Oscar win, the filmmaker is going even bigger with his next movie, Varanasi. Some advice from James Cameron influenced him to go there.

When CinemaBlend had the chance to speak to Rajamouli back in November in Hyderabad, India, the director recalled linking up with the Avatar: Fire And Ash filmmaker while on the Oscar trail for RRR. In his words:

There’s a viral clip of the moment when Rajamouli and Cameron linked up at the Critics Choice Awards in 2023 where the directors geeked out over each other. Rajamouli at the time told me he hadn’t spoken to Cameron recently (he later reunited with him for a chat in December shared on YouTube), but his advice has remained important to him as he makes Varanasi.

The new movie, which is coming to global cinemas in April 2027, is currently in production. During my trip to India, Rajamouli unveiled the first footage to Varanasi in front of over 40,000 fans on a massive 100 by 132 foot screen that showcased the visuals being created especially for IMAX. The director told me this about his decision to shoot the adventurous epic:

Varanasi is a globetrotting, time-spanning action-adventure film that brings Priyanka Chopra Jonas to Indian cinema for the first time in years since in the past decade, she’s predominantly been producing and starring in Hollywood movies. She joins two other big stars from India, Mahesh Babu and Prithviraj Sukumaran. The title is named after the city of Varanasi, which is thought of as a spiritual capital of India. It’s one of the most expensive movies ever made in India, and one of the first made for IMAX. You can check out the first look at Varanasi here:

This certainly looks like the kind of movie you want to see on the biggest screen possible! As Sukumaran also told us, currently India doesn’t even have a screen that can play a film in the 1.43 ratio, but they hope that will change by the time it comes out. Rajamouli making waves in cinema and thinking big and innovative as he is certainly makes it clear as to why him and James Cameron get along. Varanasi is hitting theaters around the world on April 7, 2027.

Ever since Avatar: Fire And Ash came out, one big question seems to be lingering between James Cameron and fans: “Will there be more Avatar movies after this?” Now that the third Avatar film has made a majority of its cash at the global box office and is dying down at a projected 1.5 billion worldwide as more 2026 movie releases roll in, it’s time to discuss that very question more in depth.

Fire And Ash had a big worldwide opening the weekend before Christmas with a $345 million debut, but it’s been made clear across its past month and a half in cineplexes that the sequel’s box office success has been cast in the shadows of the first two films. Let’s get into the specifics and what it could mean for the planned follow-up films.

How Is Avatar: Fire And Ash Doing At The Box Office?

Following Fire And Ash’s seventh weekend at the box office, the movie has made around $1.42 billion worldwide against a production budget of over $400 million. That makes Avatar 3 the No. 3 highest-grossing movie of last year, below China’s monster $2.26 billion hit Ne Zha 2 and Disney’s Zootopia 2 (which made $1.78 billion globally), per Box Office Mojo. It made the Avatar movies the biggest trilogy of all time, and its star Zoe Saldaña the highest-grossing actor of all time – dethroning Scarlett Johansson.

Clearly, the numbers show the Avatar movies can still inspire a lot of audiences to buy movie tickets, but if you look at what its predecessors did around the same time, there’s also a clear decline in popularity happening, too. At day 45 at the box office, Fire And Ash was at $386.7 million domestically total, whereas the original had grossed $595.8 million, and the 2022 sequel had surpassed it at $620.8 (via The Numbers).

The Way of Water certainly had a leg up, given it was the first Avatar movie in thirteen years, and Fire and Ash came out just three years after the first sequel. It also doesn’t help matters that the latest installment was mixed among critics, with our own Fire And Ash review giving the movie a respectable, but not amazing, 3.5 out of 5. Cameron couldn’t pull off Avatar growing with each of its movies, and there has to be some concern over whether a fourth movie would flop or significantly lose money going forward.

What James Cameron Has Said Needs To Happen To Make More Sequels

For the time being, Avatar 4 technically has a release date for December 21, 2029, along with Avatar 5 dated for December 19, 2031. Cameron has previously confirmed that he has written both scripts and has even filmed some of Avatar 4, but during Fire And Ash’s press tour, James Cameron has consistently emphasized a big “if” when talking about Avatar 4 and 5. Here’s what he said about how much it needs to make for him to make another one:

The results don’t exactly amount to those expectations, even though the filmmaker didn’t give us a specific dollar amount. If Fire And Ash’s performance doesn’t prove worthy, Cameron has said he’ll either write a book, hold a press conference, or put out a press release about what was going to happen in the planned next two movies he was working on. Cameron has also talked about the possibility of waiting “a while until we figure out how to bring costs down” since, for the time being, making an Avatar movie costs a “metric f–kton” to produce.

Why Avatar Might End As A Trilogy

While Fire and Ash’s box office performance shows a decline in interest from audiences over the franchise, it’s worth noting that the Avatar movies are still one of the biggest movie franchises in history. They currently sit at No. 12 (per The Numbers), but what’s impressive about that is it’s the only movie among the top fifteen to be there with just three movies to its name! There’s also the fact that it’s one of Disney’s biggest properties, with the studio having money invested into Avatar at their theme parks.

Surely, Walt Disney Studios must be looking at ways for Avatar to continue right now if they can be made for less than they have before. However, Cameron and his production company do own the rights to the IP (with Disney having distribution rights), so it’s not like the House of Mouse can simply decide to make more of them without his consent, and Cameron isn’t one to cut corners on the production side of things. Plus, Cameron has said he’s OK if Fire And Ash is “the last one” to THR since there’s really “only one [unanswered question] in the story”.

Now, during CinemaBlend’s interview with the legendary filmmaker, he said “artistically” he’s ready to continue the franchise, but he also has a few ideas for smaller movies he’s been working on he might want to do as well, like another Terminator movie, an adaptation of The Last Train from Hiroshima and the fantasy novel The Devils. Each of these films would theoretically cost a lot less than Avatar movies do, and he’d get to fulfill his visions for them without compromise.

To round things up here, it’s looking like it’s more likely that Avatar will remain a trilogy for now than hearing about a greenlight for Avatar 4 and 5 in the next coming weeks, but that’s just an educated guess. We’ll keep you updated here on CinemaBlend as more Avatar news surfaces. Fire And Ash is still playing in theaters, with the other two available to stream on Disney+.

There was a time when Titanic’s Kate Winslet said, "You'd have to pay me a lot of money” to work with James Cameron again. Winslet and Cameron, of course, initially worked together on Titanic and, after that, Winslet made comments about Cameron's alleged temper. But 25 years later, she was cast in Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, where she wore full-motion capture gear and did crazy underwater scenes. While Cameron and Winslet are cool, the director did have some thoughts on the comments made about him.

Based on behind-the-scenes fact about Titanic, the film's production was stressful. With long hours of filming in the cold, budget changes and a subsequent wave of bad press, the film's path to becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time (for over a decade) was no cakewalk. But on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, the host spoke about how Kate Winslet said after filming that she was “genuinely frightened” of James Cameron and that he had a “temper.” Here’s what the top-grossing director had to say about that:

James Cameron allowed the proverbial water to go under the bridge after Kate Winslet apologized. It’s not uncommon for people to make emotionally charged comments, especially after stressful experiences. Considering the two ended up working together again decades later for the Avatar: The Way of Water (streamable with a Disney+ subscription) and Fire and Ash, I’d definitely say the pair are on good terms today.

Years ago, people speculated that Titanic would sink at the box office due to reports of the historical romance flick going over budget, release date delays and rumors of harsh working conditions. During his recent interview, Cameron continued to talk about how Winslet’s initial claims could have been sparked by uncertainty about whether their movie would actually succeed:

I can understand the pressure Kate Winslet could have been under as she was still a young star at the time. The English actress' role as Rose DeWitt Bukater made her the tenth-youngest Best Actress nominee at 22, and she became a Golden Globe nominee as well. Honestly, I'd say that everything paid off, given the historical romance film is now considered one of Winslet's best movies.

For his part, James Cameron seems to have gained a lot of perspective in regard to the hard way he treated people on set. Back in the day, he and his crew even went as far as to wear T-shirts to keep people in line that said things like “You either shoot it my way or you do another movie.” The Abyss director got real about those infamous tees:

Even if Kate Winslet recalled James Cameron’s temper back then, she still has fond memories of the director now. She previously stated in 2022 that she understood what “a terrifying experience” filming Titanic was for Cameron. That was because the technology used for the film was experimental, and the crew couldn't afford for anything to go wrong during the shoot.

When the Titanic pair collaborated for Avatar: The Way of Water, on the other hand, the Oscar-winning actress described Cameron as “calmer” as he delved into the familiar world of Pandora and was confident in what he was doing for that shoot.

It goes without saying that James Cameron and Kate Winslet have had some great movie collaborations. The partnership may not have always been easy early on, but I love that they're still close today. You can watch their latest film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, which is still playing in theaters.

The Avatar movies are such immersive experiences when they are complete. Can you imagine what it’s like for the actors to shoot it? Well, one of the performers from the sequels has shared what it was like to be part of James Cameron’s incredibly massive undertaking, and it’s certainly understandable why her memory is fuzzy about the whole thing.

While audiences waited 13 years between the first movie and The Way of Water, and then three years for Fire and Ash, Bailey Bass had a very different experience playing the role of Tsireya on the sequels. In her words to ScreenRant:

The production for Avatar 2 and 3 actually began back in the fall of 2017 and went on for 18 months. During that time, James Cameron was capturing footage for both The Way of Water and Fire and Ash. During an interview with CinemaBlend, Cameron told us that because the movie is shot on motion capture, it wasn’t difficult to bring the actors back in between the end of initial filming and the post production of the sequels, meaning they may have been on set a year or two ago, but it’s all mixed in with an experience that lasted nearly a decade in total.

Bailey Bass, in particular, is one of the Avatar kids who is 22 now, but was around 13 when she first stepped on the Avatar set. When she finally got to see these movies, she was watching a project that had taken place across half of her life. Crazy, right? It must have been so amazing to see the final products with the releases of The Way of Water and Fire and Ash.

Bass’s co-star Trinity Jo-Li Bliss (who’s even younger at the current age of 16) pointed out that for her, the two movies “have a different tone” so she could somewhat distinguish between them, where the cast would “get into a different zone.” One popular criticism about Avatar: Fire and Ash is that it was too similar to The Way of Water, and perhaps the fact that they were filmed at the same time has something to do with why. One way that Fire and Ash is really distinct from its predecessor is through fan-favorite character Verang, the violent leader of the Mangkwan clan or ash people.

James Cameron is hoping to make two more Avatar movies following Fire and Ash, but that will depend on the movie’s success. The movie finally fell off No. 1 last weekend after five weeks, with a reported $1.38 billion worldwide gross so far, making it a huge hit, but is it enough? Time will tell, but for now, you can still check out the movie now playing in theaters.

James Cameron has made some of the biggest movies in Hollywood between The Terminator, Titanic and the Avatar trilogy, but everyone has to start somewhere. The filmmaker just shared a wild story about one of his early projects where he was apparently handed cocaine to give to the crew like it was no big deal.

In a recent conversation with Graham Bensinger, Cameron recalled one of his early jobs, working on 1980’s Battle Beyond The Stars. James Cameron was originally hired as a model maker for the science fiction flick, but when the original production designer was fired for not getting his work done in time, Cameron was promoted two weeks before filming was set to begin. The Terminator filmmaker recalled what the production managed told him on the first day of his new position:

Cameron said he’d never even been a production designer at that point, but they saw that he didn’t mind staying up all night working on the project and took a chance on him. But what’s up with cocaine being involved? As he continued:

Cameron gave away his coke to someone else he worked with to “deal it” to the other crew members because he didn’t want to deal or take it himself. In his words:

Wow, that definitely shows a different side of the movie production world we don’t often hear about. Sure, cocaine could certainly in theory increase alertness and energy on set for those taking it, but it’s also a very illegal and dangerous narcotic that is both highly addictive and can cause all sorts of health complications with both short-term and long-term use.

James Cameron has plenty of other crazy stories about being a filmmaker (like the time he saved a rat with CPR while making The Abyss), but when he was fairly new to the industry back in 1980, he must have been pretty shocked over the whole thing. Just two years later, he graduated to starting running his own set with his feature directorial debut on Piranha II: The Spawning before making the likes of The Terminator, Aliens and The Abyss in the same decade.

In recent years, Cameron’s primary projects have been in the world of Pandora for Avatar, where he’s grown very fond of spending a lot of production in New Zealand. His most recent movie, Avatar: Fire And Ash has been a success despite some criticisms about the story.

Avatar: Fire and Ash has made $1.38 billion dollars globally, which is obviously a success, but Cameron has said before that it cost “one metric fuckton of money” and will have to make “two metric fucktons of money” for him to move on to his plans for Avatar 4 and 5. The movie is playing in theaters now.

Guillermo del Toro is one of our greatest living film directors. I don’t think that’s a particularly hot take. However, just because he’s great doesn’t mean that he is perfect or cannot take criticism. In fact, it turns out he knows just who to call to help make his movies ever better: all the other greatest living directors.

Speaking with Variety, del Toro was asked how he handled the final cut of his films, or if making some of the film's edits was difficult for him. Oftentimes, editing decisions come from the response of test audiences, but the Frankenstein director revealed that he doesn’t test his movies. Instead, he shows his films to his friends. As he put it:

One might think that you’d only hear what you want if you show your movie to your friends. However, in this case, Guillermo del Toro’s “friends” are other great directors. Del Toro's friendship with James Cameron is well known, and there has been discussion of the "Secret Film Club" before, though it's apparently bigger than we thought. It also turns out that a particular part of Frankenstein is missing on the word of the Avatar filmmaker. Del Toro explained…

I already wanted to be Guillermo del Toro’s friend, but now that desire has exploded because sitting in a room full of some of the greatest filmmakers ever and hearing them debate the finer points of their own films sounds like absolute heaven. The fact that these men are allowed to be brutal with each other’s work, but can be professional about it isn’t easy, but it must lead to incredible conversations about filmmaking.

Apparently all James Cameron had to say was that a few minutes of the Frankenstein story didn’t work or weren’t necessary, and the seven minutes of film, which was still beautiful, were gone. While I certainly want to know more about these seven minutes, I also can't argue that Frankenstein ever felt like anything was missing.

Guillermo del Toro says he doesn’t second-guess his friends. When they tell him to do something with a movie, he does it. He figures if he’s going to ask the question, he needs to listen to the answer. The director said…

Considering that all of these directors combined have made far more great movies than poor ones, and there are plenty of Oscars between them to prove it, it seems this process of working together to improve their work really accomplishes its goals.

James Cameron is one of the most successful filmmakers of all time. With three of the top five highest-grossing films of all time directed by him, there’s nobody else quite at his level. But it’s taken some hard work, and possibly some hurt feelings, to get there. And Cameron admits to not liking the person he used to be on set.

Cameron recently appeared on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, where he spoke at length about his career. The host asked him about previous comments he had made that amounted to the director not liking the way he tended to act while directing. Cameron admitted there was a time when he had a tendency to be so focused on getting the movie made right, that he took even the slightest hindrance to that personally. He explained…

Film is certainly a collaborative medium, but the director is the one in charge, and it seems Cameron may have taken that a little too much to heart in the past. It sounds like those working with him might run afoul of the director’s temper from time to time, as Cameron had little patience for mistakes on set. Although it did appear to work, considering the best James Cameron movies are among the most successful movies ever made.

However, Cameron says he’s worked hard to change that mentality and thinks he’s now found a good balance. He understands that blaming people doesn’t make the movie better and is more tolerant of mistakes because he knows they can be dealt with. He continued…

The specific case of Kate Winslet is brought up, as the actress famously said some less-than-stellar things about Cameron as a director following Titanic. Cameron takes exception to that specific case, while he doesn’t specifically claim that things didn’t happen as the actress claimed, he doesn’t feel that her comments were entirely descriptive of the experience of making Titanic with him. And Winslet had nothing but good things to say when she worked with him again on Avatar: The Way of Water.

Whatever things used to be like, it seems that James Cameron at least thinks working with him is better now. This is good news for whatever his next movie ends up being, whether it’s the next two Avatar films or something else entirely.

New Zealand has become a key location for the film industry ever since Peter Jackson brought it to the world in The Lord of the Rings films. I'd guess that the second biggest franchise to call the nation home has to be Avatar. Director James Cameron also calls the country his home, having lived there since 2020. While Avatar certainly plays its part in that choice, it seems likely the director would live in New Zealand even if the movies never happened.

In a clip from an upcoming episode of the In Depth with Graham Bensinger podcast, James Cameron reveals that his love affair with New Zealand actually started 15 years before the first Avatar film. He made an unscheduled stop there back in 1994, and before he left, he decided he would move there, eventually. Cameron explains…

The first Avatar movie played its part in moving James Cameron closer to that goal. It was two years after the first film that he and his wife, Suzy Amis, bought their farm in New Zealand. They would then begin to split their time between New Zealand and California for the next decade.

Ultimately, it would be the COVID pandemic that would push Cameron to finally pull the trigger on moving full-time to New Zealand. The next two Avatar movies, which would become The Way of Water and Fire and Ash, were in production when the pandemic hit and shut down New Zealand to outsiders, making it difficult for Cameron and his family to get back to their farm, nevermind get production started again. Once the filmmaker was able to get back, the decision was made to stay. Cameron continued…

Having been to New Zealand once myself, I certainly can’t argue that it’s a beautiful country, and I totally understand why somebody would want to live there. Whether Cameron will continue to work in New Zealand, however, is a different question. While Avatar 4 and 5 are still listed as upcoming Disney movies, and the scripts are done, there’s no official news on production, and Cameron himself seemed to be managing expectations that the two movies are not guaranteed.

If any movie is the king of James Cameron’s world, I think it's Titanic. While some claim his legacy is the Avatar franchise, with its latest installment Avatar: Fire and Ash currently in theaters, I respectfully disagree. That's because, no matter what movie the Aliens director promotes, he is almost always asked about Titanic, and one infamous door scene in particular. You know the one. Cameron recently dropped an F-bomb while expressing his exhaustion with the debate over Titanic’s raft scene (but I still have my doubts after his most recent rant).

Could Jack have fit on the door with Rose? It’s a question that has plagued Hollywood for decades. Titanic stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet have both been asked to answer the question in its resurgence, and of course, the Avatar director has been grilled on it a billion times. Even after he ran a series of scientific experiments to prove Jack couldn’t survive, people continued to question him. Now, he’s trying to squash the debate once and for all on The Hollywood Reporter’s Award Chatter Podcast with an expletive to add some extra umph to his argument:

It’s true, after performing all those scientific scenarios with stunt doubles, Cameron and co. admitted there was a small chance Jack could have survived if they had both sat on the raft, out of the water, instead of Rose lying down. But as Cameron points out, Jack wasn’t exactly a scientific trailblazer:

The Terminator director has previously said it wouldn’t matter anyway if Jack could fit on the door or not. In the end, Rose did have to let go–Jack had to die. While Jack and Rose may be fictional characters, the tragic end to their story was very real for the majority of the passengers on the Titanic. Without his heroic death, you render the movie “meaningless,” as Cameron puts it.

So I understand his frustration, I do. The continued debate of the raft is kind of a middle finger to his whole movie–just proving year after year that people are missing the point entirely. However, I think he might just need to give in and play along. I personally think it’s a tired debate. At this point, though, I think some people are just bringing it up to get a rise out of him.

The True Lies filmmaker can drop as many F-bombs as he likes, unfortunately for him, I don’t believe this debate will ever die. It’s a classic conversation starter at parties, among friends, and even on game shows. The problem doesn’t lie in the science, it lies in the fact that people like Margot Robbie don’t like to watch its sad, tragic ending. Which is totally fine, but James Cameron doesn’t want to hear it anymore, guys! Seriously, maybe we should just let him make his upcoming projects in peace.

If there’s one filmmaker whose shadow looms larger than Pandora’s floating mountains, it’s James Cameron. The director has personally shepherded the Avatar franchise from its earliest sketches to its current status as one of the most lucrative film series in history. But even the Terminator director has hinted that he may not be behind the camera forever, and if he does step away, there's a horror filmmaker in the wings wanting a shot at the series.

According to ScreenRant, James Wan is openly raising his hand if Cameron ever decides to step away. While speaking to the outlet during press for The Copenhagen Test, Wan revealed that Avatar (which is streaming with a Disney+ subscription) is one of the few mega-franchises he hasn’t touched yet, and he’d be more than happy to change that if the opportunity arose. He said:

The Conjuring Universe architect’s interest comes at a precarious moment in the Avatar franchise. The most recent entry, Fire and Ash, has been in theaters for a short time and is already barreling toward the billion-dollar mark worldwide. That kind of momentum makes the idea of the Abyss filmmaker stepping aside feel unthinkable, yet the director himself has acknowledged it’s not off the table. With Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 scheduled for 2029 and 2031, respectively, Cameron’s been vocal about pursuing other long-gestating projects, including another Terminator film.

If the mind behind True Lies were to pass the torch, Wan makes a lot of sense as he’s one of the most commercially reliable filmmakers working today. His Conjuring universe alone has grossed roughly $2.8 billion worldwide, making it the most impactful horror franchise ever. If you take into account Saw, Insidious, Furious 7, and Aquaman, you’re looking at a director who knows how to balance studio expectations and audience appeal.

Of course, Avatar is a very different beast from the Conjuring series. Cameron has engineered the world, obsessing over underwater performance capture, new camera systems, and filmmaking techniques. Wan seems to recognize that stepping into Pandora would likely be a collaborative effort rather than a clean break. Still, if anyone could handle it, it would probably be the horror hitmaker.

That kind of partnership might be the only way Disney would feel comfortable moving forward without the series creator in the director’s chair.

Cameron bowing out of the director’s chair would be a seismic shift for the franchise. He’s been hands-on at nearly every creative level, with a meticulous approach that has clearly resonated with audiences, as the first two movies earned an extraordinary $2.923 billion and $2.343 billion worldwide.

James Cameron remains attached to Avatar 4 and 5, as of this writing, but knowing there’s a proven hitmaker like James Wan eager to step in gives Disney a reassuring safety net if the series' creator decides to move on to other film projects.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is now playing in theaters. Be sure to check your local listings for showtimes.

As for the other James, the Australian-born scare maestro is set to direct the upcoming horror movie adaptation of The Call of Cthulu, although a release date hasn’t been announced, and it’s uncertain whether the film will land on the 2026 movie calendar.

One of the perks of James Cameron releasing an epic adventure like Avatar: Fire and Ash is that the verbose and opinionated filmmaker goes on a lengthy press tour and shares tons of interesting and sometimes inflammatory anecdotes, while also teasing upcoming projects like new Terminator movies. The Oscar winner has not disappointed this time around at all, and he let some surprisingly candid thoughts fly when asked about Alien 3 infamously and immediately killing off fan-favorite characters.

Cameron had a lengthy chat with one of his former go-to stars for the podcast Just Foolin’ About with Michael Biehn, and in the midst of a conversation about generative AI and how it affects actors’ likenesses being used on screen, Aliens’ Michael Biehn made a quick pivot in direction. He instead lobbed the interview version of a grenade at the director by asking how he felt about Carrie Henn’s Newt revealed as dead in Alien 3. Cameron chuckled before answering with:

It was almost like Michael Biehn's question was the personification of Newt's death confirmation, so out of nowhere it came. To be sure, James Cameron hasn't ever pretended to adore the way the third Alien movie kicked off with the fanfare-free reveals that Newt, Biehn's Corporal Hicks, and Lance Henriksen's Bishop all perish when their escape pod crashes on Fiorina 161. But he usually doesn't drop F-bombs about it, either.

As much as it was a jolt for viewers to see that trio of Aliens characters suddenly out of the picture, cementing it as a sequel we kinda wish didn't exist, you can bet that it was even more jarring for Cameron, considering he was the main creative force in bringing the three to life. He continued his sarcasm-laced comments, saying:

If James Cameron ever passive-aggressively referred to me as clever and smart while so very obviously meaning the exact opposite, I might very well go throw myself in front of a speeding Xenomorph. That kind of burn doesn't go away with just a topical ointment.

Not that Cameron is even pointing the finger of blame at Alien 3's credited director, the highly esteemed David Fincher, given the numerous issues that have been publicly disclosed regarding that production. He addressed his fellow filmmaker, whose next film would be the all-time great '90s classic Se7en, by saying:

The story behind all of Alien 3's various behind-the-scenes changes and setbacks literally takes longer to go through than the runtime of the 1992 film itself, which is widely viewed as one of the most nihilistic horror sequels of the era. Fincher's lauded work in the world of music videos helped land him the 20th Century Fox gig after other directors had vacated, and he's been very vocal about how little oversight he had, and how much he had to fight for the few creative choices he was allowed to bring in.

So while "pissing James Cameron off about Newt" probably wasn't high on David Fincher's list of worries when it came to getting Alien 3 out into the public, at least we now know it never had to be on that list at all. Which leads me to my follow-up, "why James Cameron needs to get on board with Mindhunter Season 3: a five-part argument."

For those who want to relive the discomfort of those three hastily revealed deaths, Alien 3 is currently available to stream via Hulu subscription.

A lot has been said about Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite since the Netflix original movie hit the streamer back in October. Though critics said the movie packed a wallop with its exploration of a doomsday scenario in the moments leading to nuclear war, audiences have had some serious gripes with the final minutes. However, legendary filmmaker James Cameron is singing a different tune.

When speaking with The Hollywood Reporter shortly after his own much-talked-about recent film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, blew up the box office, Cameron took time to defend Kathryn Bigelow, his fellow filmmaker and former wife, and her decision to end the movie the way she did. Recalling a conversation the pair had over dinner a few weeks after A House of Dynamite hit the 2025 movie schedule, Cameron says:

For those who haven’t either forgotten or overlooked the riveting thriller starring Rebecca Ferguson, Idris Elba and a who’s who of character actors, A House of Dynamite’s ending leaves a lot unresolved. Did the nuclear warhead turn Chicago into a nuclear wasteland? Did the United States retaliate? Is the world destroyed?

We don’t really get the answers, but Cameron believes that learning the fate of the world and seeing the bombs explode isn’t “really the point” of the film. As he explains:

It can be argued that this point is driven home with the subtlety of a hammer in the third and final act of A House of Dynamite, as Idris Elba’s President of the United States (he is unnamed in the movie) grapples with the idea of launching a retaliatory attack while not knowing who put Chicago, and America at large, in its crosshairs and why.

Comments like this coming from Cameron are nothing new, as the director has long touched on the dangers of unchecked nuclear power (and technology in general) with his Terminator franchise and other movies, like The Abyss and True Lies. That said, it should come as no surprise when the filmmaker opened up on how to win a nuclear war:

Based on Cameron’s comments about A House of Dynamite and nuclear war in general, it will be interesting to see how he handles the subject whenever he starts shooting the long-in-the-works Ghosts of Hiroshima book-to-screen adaptation. However, that project, along with the fate of his Avatar franchise, is currently in limbo until Fire and Ash finishes its run at the box office.

It’s easy to imagine the filmmaking process of the Avatar movies being very complicated. Not only do all of the actors have to imagine the world of Pandora while waring motion-capture suits, but even actors like Jack Champion had to film both live-action and performance-capture scenes. However, there was still apparently some room for goofing around amid production, as the kid actors launched a swear jar while on set. That alone is funny, but what really cracks me up is the pricing for the specific words, including F-bombs.

The 2025 movie release Avatar: Fire and Ash may be PG-13, but Trinity Bliss told THR the set i apparently R-rated when it came to language. She told a funny story about how while filming years ago, she and Jack Champion (who play Sully family members of “Tuk” and Spider, respectively) decided to have some fun and create a swear jar for each on-set curse word:

Well, hey, it was for a good cause! Now, I’m wondering how much money they were able to rack up. If parents have swear jars in their household to teach kids not to curse, I find it hilarious that the kids themselves are enacting this on the adults. Ultimately, it's a good lesson that salty language can literally cost you when you're dishing it out around kids.

You may have heard the expression “put a quarter in the swear jar.” When Trinity Bliss and Jack Champion were running the show, the young actress got real about how cursing cost Sam Worthington and James Cameron a lot more than that. While sharing Cameron and Worthington's responses, Bliss also revealed exactly how much some of those words cost to say, and wow:

Those are pretty expensive rations, if I do say so myself. That would definitely teach me to clean up my language. But at least Worthington was honest about how much dough he'd be spending on future curse words. And I'd like to think Cameron would relish the how his cursing helped young Trinity Bliss nail her next audition, given she learned such foul language from him.

While the Avatar franchise's younger actors must have had a lot of fun with their swear jar, you’ve got to give them credit for the many challenges they faced on set. As the simultaneous filming of Way of Water and Fire and Ash helped further along the franchise releases, Bliss told THR that three years of filming meant the child actors’ heights were outgrowing their characters. They also had to deal with intense action sequences like being “pushed back” by big fans.

Considering the youths spent so many years on set, their co-star, Sigourney Weaver, joked about eventually “looking up” to the them as opposed to “down," particularly when it came to Jack Champion. With the grueling filming challenges these kids had to deal with, I look up to them, too, for pushing through and succeeding.

All that aside, I love that there was some humor on the the Fire and Ash set and that the kids managed to keep the adults in line in some form with the swear jar. Of course, should the stars get to reunite to make the final two movies, I wouldn't be surprised if Trinity Bliss and Jack Champion find themselves cursing a bit more now that they're older and have to pay up a bit.

Don’t miss out on Avatar: Fire and Ash, which is now playing in theaters nationwide. The first two films are also streamable with a Disney+ subscription.

For the past 40-plus years, one man has been associated with the Terminator franchise more than anyone else. No, it’s not John Connor. Nor is it James Cameron (but he is involved in what I’m about to say). Instead, it’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose time-traveling T-800 cyborg has been spitting out iconic one-liners like “I’ll be back,” ever since the 1984 debut of one of the best sci-fi movies of all time. However, it sounds like the actor-turned-governor-turned-actor-again won’t be involved when the franchise makes its eventual return.

I recently found out that James Cameron is working on a new Terminator movie after going through that must-read THR interview, but was surprised to learn that the franchise star wouldn’t be a part of the story. Now that the shock has worn off and I’ve started to make sense of it all, I have to admit that while I’m not totally on board with this, I am cautiously optimistic about the situation. Hear me out…

Honestly, I Don’t Know If I Want (Or Need) More Terminator In The First Place

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Terminator movies… even the bad ones. Watching Terminator 2: Judgment Day with my older brother back in the ‘90s changed my life (it was also the first Blu-ray I owned), and I still consider The Terminator to be one of the scariest sci-fi movies ever made. Hell, I even had a great time watching Terminator: Dark Fate a few years ago, even if I was one of a few people in the theater.

The thing is, every aspect of the Terminator setup has been done already. We’ve had an evil T-800, a good T-800, kid John Connor, druggie John Connor, adult John Connor, evil John Connor, and all kinds of Sarah Connors over the years. We’ve been in the past, present, and future, and I really don’t know where the story could go from here. And I’m even less sure if I want more or if the franchise should just be put to rest at this point.

This Could Breathe Some New Life Into The Franchise

That said, I’m not completely writing the franchise off, but instead going with a healthy dose of cautious optimism that the decision to take Schwarzenegger and his T-800 character out of the equation could be for the best. If anything, it could breathe some new life into the franchise if we’re going to keep this thing going.

I understand that Schwarzenegger’s cyborg (all the different versions) is essentially the mascot and drawing power of the Terminator franchise, but creating, building, and sticking with another character (or characters) could go a long way and prevent the series from going back to the bag of old tricks. I mean, we’ve seen the Alien and Predator properties do this in recent years (more on the former later), and I honestly think that could be the case here. It’d take some time to get used to, but after that initial shock, it could work… with the right story.

Maybe This Means We Could Put The Connor Saga Behind Us, As Well

If Schwarzenegger and his iconic character won’t be coming back for the new Terminator movie (whenever that may be), maybe this means the franchise can finally move beyond the whole Connor saga as well. I mean, Linda Hamilton has said she’s “done” with the character after Terminator: Dark Fate and has nothing more to say, so hopefully that means Cameron and the powers that be don’t try to rehash that story again.

As I mentioned above, we’ve seen every variation of the Connor family story over the yeas, and it’s about time we say goodbye to them once and for all. No new timelines, no rehashing, no rebooting. Just move past it and start something new. Don’t get me wrong, I think Sarah’s arc, just like Hamilton’s performance, is one of the best the genre has ever seen, but it’s gotten stale with the more recent releases.

The Star Wars franchise has shown that it’s possible to have success without the primary family (the Skywalkers in that case) taking up all the story real estate. Sure, it will take some time for fans to get used to it, but it can work.

I Know It’s Different, But The Alien Franchise Has Had Some Great Moments Without Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley

Another reason why I’m not writing this new Terminator off is the fact that, like Star Wars, the Alien franchise has found a way to continue without Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley. Though I would give anything to see what Neill Blomkamp had in store for the character before the District 9 director’s concept went out the window, the property has been on a hot streak in recent years, even without the legendary female badass.

Though I’m not the biggest fan of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, the delightful 2024 return to form that was Alien: Romulus and the 2025 TV show Alien: Earth were both fantastic and created new stories set inside that vast universe. If we could get that but with Terminator, I think this could be the start of the next phase in the franchise’s story. Or, this could be wishful thinking.

If Arnold Doesn’t Come Back, They Better Not Pull A Terminator: Salvation

In the event that a new Terminator movie actually happens, and Schwarzenegger isn’t involved, I really hope that we don’t get another Terminator: Salvation situation on our hands. Remember that awkward and downright awful CGI version of the T-800 that was featured in the 2009 movie? Woof!

Not only was it ugly as sin (the tech wasn’t there, and I don’t think it ever will be), but it also served as a distraction. After that scene, I couldn’t stop thinking about that abomination. If we’re going to move beyond the T-800, let’s just make it a clean break and go start something new. Don’t ride the fence; pick a side….

Regardless of what happens, I’ll probably end up seeing any and all new Terminator movies. That said, I really hope this one is at least somewhat watchable and not like Terminator: Genysis.

Spoilers for Avatar: Fire and Ash lie ahead.

James Cameron’s Avatar franchise is well regarded for delivering over-the-top action sequences and stunning visual effects. All of that aside, the films also showcase a bit of romance, mostly from Jake and Neytiri. However, those two aren’t the only power couple in the franchise’s latest installment, Fire and Ash, as Col. Miles Quaritch hooks up with a witchy Na’vi named Varang, and their romantic tension is very palpable in one scene involving a tent. Now, Cameron is opening up about crafting that scene and how it almost changed.

In his continued efforts to bring in Jake Sully for the RDA, Quartich forms an alliance with the Mangkwan tribe, led by Varang (played by franchise newcomer Oona Chaplin). He even arms her tribe with weapons Before that, though, Varang feels out Quaritch – physically and literally – while exposing him to a hallucinogen and cutting him with a knife. Since Fire and Ash’s release amid the 2025 movie schedule, the scene has gone viral, and Cameron has a take on why it’s so interesting to watch:

Honestly, it is hard to look away from the spicy scene (especially if you’re watching the Avatar threequel in IMAX 3D). What’s interesting, though, is that James Cameron didn’t initially realize the full breadth of this segment of the film. He went on to explain to THR is that he initially believed the ball was in Varang’s court during that meeting, until the Oscar-winning filmmaker realized something later on:

Cameron penned the screenplay alongside fellow Avatar veterans Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa. As the Titanic helmer mentioned, he was pleased with how Quaritch and Varang’s sensual scene was written on the page. However, it was nearly changed in a big way when the editors sought to essentially cut it in half. That led Cameron to issue the following declaration:

And that was that. It was probably best that the scene remained intact, and I don’t just base that on the buzz it’s now receiving. That’s also because it provides more insight into who Varang is as a character. She’s arguably become a breakout character from the film, and fans are loving her. All the while, Oona Chaplin is hopeful about continuing her character’s journey in subsequent installments. Check out a portion of the tent scene below:

There’s still a question as to whether those final two Avatar movies will actually happen. While James Cameron told CinemaBlend he’s ready to make the fourth and fifth installments, he’s waiting to see how Fire and Ash fares at the box office before committing to the films. So fans will just have to wait and see what lies ahead for Varang as well as Quaritch (whose fate was left somewhat ambiguous). And, if more films happen, I also have to wonder if Cameron has more sensual scenes in mind for the characters.

For now, Avatar: Fire and Ash is now playing in theaters, while the franchise’s first two installments are streamable with a Disney+ subscription.

Spoilers ahead for Avatar: Fire and Ash.

James Cameron movies are known for their cutting-edge technology, especially the way motion capture and visual effects were used in the Avatar films (which are streaming with a Disney+ subscription). The threequel Fire and Ash won at the box office, and introduced fans to a new type of Nai'vi: the Mangkwan aka Ash People. Actress Oona Chaplin led this group as the villainous Varang, and recently teased where she thinks her story could continue in future sequels.

Critical response for Avatar: Fire and Ash has been mixed, but most critics are agreed at that Chaplin's Varang was a real high point of the third film. Avatar 3's ending saw a big death scene, but not for Chaplin's character. While speaking with Gold Derby about what comes next for Varang, the actress offered:

It was fascinating to learn about the Ash People, who became violent and rage-fueled after Eywa failed to save them from from a volcano that burned down their village. They were given weapons by Quaritch which made them even more terrifying, but still lost the movie's final battle. Will Varang be even more radicalized moving forward, or will she take away a different lesson from this loss?

Later in the same interview, Chaplin herself questioned what might be coming next if/when she returns to Pandora for Avatar 4. She mused about how Varang might have reacted to Quaritch's presumed death, saying:

Quaritch and Varang's relationship was one of the most viral part of Fire and Ash, moving the story forward while also providing plenty of comedic beats. But they've been separated, and it's unclear if she will continue the mission they started or move on. We'll just have to wait and see if the final two Avatar movies are actually green lit and produced.

While the Avatar movies were originally announced to be a five-film series, James Cameron put doubt on if we'll actually get the final two installments. There are certainly more narrative threads to pull from, but it'll seemingly depend on how Fire and Ash does at the box office. In that interview, Oona Chaplin spoke more about where she thinks Varang's story could go, saying:

This hatred, as well as the way she was able to use her Na'vi queue as a weapon, is a big reason why Varang was such a terrifying force throughout Fire and Ash's runtime. But she was able to survive the final battle, and her story could seemingly go anywhere in a fourth movie. That is, assuming the studio actually green lights another chapter in James Cameron's epic saga.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theaters now as part of the 2025 movie release list, and the first two movies are streaming on Disney+. Hopefully we get news one way or another about the franchise's future soon.

James Cameron has quite a reputation for his reported perfectionist nature and for never having an easy production experience. But as the final products are considered to be the best sci-fi movies of all time, all the stress to keep production going clearly pay off in the end. If you want to know how far the Canadian director will go for his work, I just found out he gave CPR to a rat while filming The Abyss, and oh my!

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, James Cameron got real about a time making the 1989 movie when a rat that was used to showcase The Abyss' oxygenated water technology almost drowned. Not wanting to letting the rodent die and having the movie’s “No Animals Were Harmed” certification taken away, the director actually performed CPR on the rodent. Cameron spoke about how his act of heroism was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between him and “Beanie”:

Hmm, I guess the U.K. didn’t catch on that James Cameron ultimately saved the rat? I suppose it proves that the award-winning filmmaker clearly cares about protecting the sci-fi movie’s reputation that he’d really resuscitate a rat. Talk about going to extremes!

But it wouldn’t be the first time that The Terminator director went out of his way for a successful finish. For Titanic, a behind-the-scenes bit of trivia about the disaster flick is that Cameron forfeited his own salary after production went over budget, as he wanted to avoid having to shorten the runtime to save money. He also cleverly saved Titanic from a wave of bad press by letting the negativity wave pass, compared to fighting against it. As the romance-adventure flick went on to win Best Picture and take over the top box office for 12 years, these were gambles that paid off.

Other than almost having to deal with the death of a rat on-set, there were other ways that The Abyss had a disastrous production. According to Syfy, James Cameron himself almost drowned filming at the bottom of a huge underwater set, where he breathed into a broken breathing regulator that had him swallowing large amounts of water. Cameron was forced to punch the safety diver holding him down to break free and reach the surface.

The cast also reportedly were under a lot of emotional stress working 70-hour weeks for six months. The divers also had their skin burnt by the chlorine and their hair turned white. Just when you thought watching the James Cameron movie was intense enough, try making it.

Declare my mind blown finding out James Cameron gave CPR to a little rat to save The Abyss. You can't say he's not dedicated, that's for sure. But it would be hard to live with yourself if a precious animal had to pay the price to test a movie’s advanced technology! Feel free to enter the underwater world via sci-fi thriller, which is available streaming with a Disney+ subscription.

James Cameron movies are known for being visual spectacles, from Terminator to Titanic to the Avatar films (which are streaming with a Disney+ subscription). While he's currently celebrating Fire and Ash hitting theaters, the visionary filmmaker recently spoke about a joke Amy Poehler made about his former marriage and career at the Golden Globes over a decade ago. And it sounds like he's still pretty offended.

For a few years the Globes were hosted by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, who became synonymous with throwing barbs at the celebrities in the audience during their opening monologue. James Cameron caught a stray back in 2013, and he recently broke his silence about that viral moment. Let's break it all down.

What James Cameron Recently Said About The Globes Joke

James Cameron has been keeping busy promoting the third Avatar movie, and has been musing about his career as a whole along the way. During an interview with The New York Times, he addressed being mocked by Poehler at the Golden Globes over a decade ago. The joke was referenced both his reputation as a "scary" director and his former marriage to filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow. The director told the publication:

It sounds like this dig bothered the director. Not only because of the content of the joke, but because of how viral it went and the way it was received in the room. Indeed, the audience at the 2013 Golden Globe ceremony had a huge reaction, with big laughs and looks of shock happening by the various TV and film stars in attendance. As the director says, this highlighted how some people think of Cameron... even if they haven't actually worked with him.

What Amy Poehler Said About James Cameron

So what exactly what the dig that's still bothering Cameron all these years later? In their opening monologue, the two hosts referenced how his ex Kathryn Bigelow was nominated for her work on Zero Dark Thirty, an acclaimed political thriller which depicted scenes of torture. That's when Poehler made the the joke:

Obviously the star of Parks & Recreation (which is streaming with a Peacock subscription) wasn't the only one responsible for this joke, but she was the one who physically said it years ago. The shady moment quickly went viral and, as Cameron admits, got a huge response in the room. You can check out a clip of that moment below, courtesy of Twitter.

While casual viewers of the Golden Globes might have forgotten about this joke, it's clear that James Cameron himself has not. Despite how this joke was aimed at his reputation, he's stayed busy in the years since, releasing both Avatar: The Way of Water and Fire and Ash.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theaters now as part of the 2025 movie release list, and the previous two movies are streaming over on Disney+.

James Cameron and Sam Worthington have a very special Hollywood relationship. After all, they are respectively the director and star of one of the industry’s biggest franchises, and given the level of visual effects involved in the making of the Avatar films, it’s a bond that requires a lot of trust. The two men have worked very closely for decades now (including the years it took to develop the series’ seminal blockbuster)… and I love that when they reflect on their collaboration, one key moment that sticks out in mind is a time on set when Worthington puked into his head rig camera.

In the run-up to the release of Avatar: Fire And Ash, Cameron and Worthington paired up for a post-screening conversation with Deadline, and it was during a discussion of “peak actor-director experience ”that the vomit-centric memory emerged. The actor struggled initially to pick out a single incident to particularly highlight (estimating that they’ve spent a cumulative total of seven or eight years working together in the 20 years they’ve known each other), but the director teed him up:

Seemingly pivoting into story-mode, Sam Worthington explained that when an actor works with James Cameron, the “truth is in the details.” What that evidently means is that if there is a scene where a character tastes something gross, the best way to go about capturing that moment is to have the actor taste something gross.

Without offering specific details regarding the “when” or saying which Avatar movie it was for, Worthington and Cameron explained what happened:

• Sam Worthington: I think the scene involved me having to drink something that was described as disgusting. So I said to Jim, ‘Well, you got to just give me something disgusting.’ I think he mixed a concoction of fish oil?
• James Cameron: Yeah, no, we went and got some Vietnamese fish sauce. Like, ‘All right, this is going to set him back.’

The puzzle of how to best shoot a scene where Jake Sully drinks something nasty was solved… but it turns out that the solution worked a bit too well. Sam Worthington most certainly was grossed out when he took a swig of Vietnamese fish sauce, but what James Cameron didn’t account for was the possibility that what went in would almost instantly come back out. The actor added,

James Cameron and Sam Worthington don’t look back on this moment in the making of the Avatar franchise as being a “classy” moment, but as far as representing the work ethic on set and figuring out ways to get things done as best as possible, it’s clearly a highlight for the duo.

Avatar: Fire And Ash is now playing in theaters everywhere (having dominated at the box office this weekend), and you’ll find plenty to read about it in the weeks to come here on CinemaBlend.

Major spoilers for Avatar: Fire and Ash lie ahead.

One of the coolest elements of the Avatar movies has to be all the worldbuilding James Cameron has created to make Pandora feel like a real place. In the latest installment, Fire And Ash audiences get to dive deeper into the fictional planet he’s created throughout the story. One highlight of the critically-acclaimed Fire and Ash is the moment The Great Mother seems to be revealed for the first time, and it has a link to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

As soon as I saw what appeared to be a large purple baby when Kiri finally got to connect with The Great Mother, I knew I had to ask about that scene during CinemaBlend’s interview with James Cameron. When posed with the question of whether the scene was inspired by 2001, Cameron confirmed how the Kubrick film informed his approach to that big moment:

Based on how James Cameron answers the question, there’s more to explore about the Ewya past what happens in Avatar: Fire And Ash. The Ewya is an interconnected biological network that helps regulate the planet’s ecosystem that Kiri seems to have a particularly strong connection to. Cameron also said this:

The more the Avatar movies push forward, the more Cameron gets to explore the fictional world. That includes the ways in which Pandora evolves as a singular entity. It’s certainly a solid reference to take inspiration from one of the best space movies of all time, and, Cameron told me the moment is a window into what questions were left unanswered for future movies.

Hopefully, the director gets a chance to show us what he’s talking about regarding The Great Mother and Kiri’s interesting relationship. The filmmaker told me he's “artistically” ready to work on Avatar 4 and 5, but wants to wait for the movie’s global performance to determine what's next. He also has “a couple of other projects” he’s interested in doing. Additionally, Cameron said the sequel will need to make “two metric fucktons of money" to make a profit.

I wonder if the fact that Spider (a human) is able to tap into the network will change the Ewya or The Great Mother in any way moving forward. At the end of Fire and Ash, Spider certainly had a positive experience there, so I might be wrong about that. However, Cameron’s comments certainly point to more mysteries to uncover, and I'm so curious if we'll get to see more of The Great Mother beyond his 2001-like moment. We'll have to wait and see if another sequel heads to the movie release schedule in the coming months.

Check out Avatar: Fire and Ash in theaters now and stream the first two movies using a Disney+ subscription.

Hollywood loves a good “what-if” story about roles actors almost take. Like how Leonardo DiCaprio almost took the role in Boogie Nights, or how Will Smith passed on the Matrix. However, few stories are bigger than Matt Damon’s long-told tale about nearly starring in Avatar and supposedly walking away from what would’ve been a huge payday. However, James Cameron himself recently challenged key parts of that narrative.

During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron seemed to want to set the record straight about what he and Matt Damon was really discussed when they talked about him potentially starring in Avatar. Cameron said that Damon was never actually offered the role in the film, so conversations surrounding financial conversations didn’t even start to happen, as he explained:

If this was the case, this is certainly not how Damon remembered everything going down. The Oscar winner previously talked about initial conversations involving a slice of the profits, which would’ve been an insane amount of money considering that Avatar ended up becoming the most profitable movie of all time.

Even if it wasn’t exactly “10 percent” as Matt Damon said, any slice of that box office would’ve been an extreme pay day. However, Cameron seemed set on revealing that Damon would never have gotten that kind of a pay day, even if he had agreed to do the movie:

Even if Cameron is right, and no money was actually talked about, I’m kinda bummed out that the Titanic director felt compelled to “set the record straight.” It’s a great story that's definitely served as a solid piece of Hollywood lore. And, as the saying goes, “never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”

While Cameron essentially ruined what may or may not be Damon’s best dinner party story, he did have a lot of positive things to say about the Good Will Hunting actor. Apparently, Damon turned down Avatar in a very classy way and, based on Cameron's comments, he's very appreciative of how the star handled that. He said:

Well, maybe after James Cameron’s Avatar saga comes to a close, these two will find a way to work together someday. Whether or not Cameron’s version of this story is accurate, or Matt Damon truly was offered the amount of money he thought he was, I'd say everything worked out well.

As John Krasinski once said about the Avatar debacle, Damon is already a huge movie star. Considering Damon's star status, I can't imagine much would have changed if he had a few million more dollars. Damon was actually able to star in a lot of great movies we wouldn’t have gotten to see if the Avatar movies ended up being a conflict, so I think him passing on the project was ultimately for the best.

Fans can see the Matt Damon-less Avatar: Fire and Ash in theaters nationwide. Also, revisit the previous two Avatar films now with a Disney+ subscription. Those who love the Jason Bourne star can see him in his own big Hollywood blockbuster, The Odyssey, which heads to cinemas on July 17 amid the 2026 movie schedule.

James Cameron movies are known for featuring cutting-edge technology, and the Avatar films (which are streaming with a Disney+ subscription) are no exception. Moviegoers are once again being brought back to Pandora in Avatar: Fire and Ash, which was filmed at the same time as The Way of Water. And it turns out that one actor had to film all of their scenes in the threequel twice in order to merge motion capture and live-action performances for the blockbuster. My mind is officially blown.

CinemaBlend's Avatar: Fire and Ash review praised its gorgeous visuals, as well as its emotional story... especially what goes down with Jack Champion's Spider. The actor spoke to SlashFilm about his role in the third movie, where he revealed that, because he plays a human character in Pandora, he had to spend years filming his footage twice over. As he put it:

Is anyone else's head spinning? The Avatar movies are very long, so it's not even like Champion only had a few scenes as Spider. So the fact that he had to track his blocking and emotional story over two years and also shoot his coverage two times is pretty wild. And it's impressive that both the actor and Cameron ultimately worked together to make this seamless from the audience's perspective.

Spider is at the heart of Fire and Ash's story, and he goes through some remarkable changes throughout its runtime. So it's fascinating to hear the way the star of Scream VI (which is streaming with a Paramount+ subscription) worked to bring his performance to life. Later in the same interview he went on to speak about the tools he had to help him track his journey, as he put it:

Every time I learn more about how the Avatar movies were shot, it's more remarkable that James Cameron's trilogy became a reality. On top of actors like Kate Winslet filming at the bottom of a pool, there was also the dual performance that Jack Champion had to bring as a result of playing a human character opposite Jake Sully's Na'vi family. But despite what a technical experience it was filming the last two movies simultaneously, the emotional story still came first. As the actor put it:

This just makes me more invested in seeing what James Cameron might bring to the table if/when his final two Avatar movies are produced. Critics were mixed on Fire and Ash, and the threequel is going to have to make a ton of money if the studio is going to move forward with more movies. Personally I'm hoping we get to see how the story concludes, especially after the twits that came from Spider and Kiri.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theaters now as part of the 2025 movie release list. Will it break box office records like its predecessor? Only time will tell.

Avatar: Fire and Ash has been among the 2025 movies global audiences have been anticipating the most since the year started, and finally, it’s here. And as it goes with every great epic, we have to go into the Avatar movies knowing that not every character will survive. Case in point, in Fire and Ash, there’s definitely one big death to talk about. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Major Death Scene In Avatar: Fire And Ash

At the end of Avatar: Fire and Ash, we see Stephen Lang’s Quaritch fall to his death during a scene between him and the Sullys. It’s an interesting moment, because Quaritch initiates the fall himself after Jake had just saved him from falling. We don’t get to see where he lands, leaving the possibility of Quaritch still being alive available. With the open-ended scene in mind, I had to ask Lang about his reading of the scene, of course.

What Stephen Lang Told Us About Quaritch's Death

During CinemaBlend’s interview with the actor, he gave us some interesting insight into the death scene. In his words:

The scene certainly felt like a “fuck it” moment for the character, so this is a great description from the actor behind it.

Quaritch certainly had an interesting journey in Fire and Ash that would warrant some confusion from his end about his place in Pandora. Technically, he dies at the end of 2009’s Avatar before he is brought back to life in Na’vi form for Way of Water to capture Jake Sully.

But in Fire and Ash, he starts to assimilate further with the Na’vi race, from forming an interesting romance with Verang to forming feelings for his son, Spider, who is human, but calls Pandora his home. I wonder if killing Jake’s son started weighing on him, and he got tired of trying to kill Jake.

For the time being, Walt Disney Studios has dated more Avatar movies to come out in 2029 and 2031, but James Cameron told us that the box office performance will determine whether he makes them. So, at the moment, we don't know if we'll ever get to learn the true fate of this character.

With Fire And Ash’s debut weekend upon us, the movie has positive to mixed reactions from critics (with our Avatar: Fire And Ash review giving it a 3.5 out of 5), and big projections for its worldwide box office performance with a projected launch of $340 million to $365 million start, per Variety. We do have to wonder if it’s the end of Quaritch, or if he’ll come back somehow, but I’m privy to think it’s the end of his story.

James Cameron is a filmmaker who will go down in history as the writer and director of some of the greatest films of all time. He's made so many hit movies it’s almost hard to count, but he thinks the list should be even longer, as Cameron recently claimed credit for writing the surfer crime movie Point Break.

In a recent interview, Cameron claimed credit for the film, saying that he “got stiffed” by the Writers’ Guild when it came to credit on the movie. The actual credit went to screenwriter W. Peter Iliff, but speaking with EW, you won’t hear him complaining. Iliff confirms that Cameron did work on the film and says he has nothing but respect for the Avatar director. The screenwriter said…

Iliff details the story of Point Break, which he wrote based on an idea from filmmaker Rick King, with Ridley Scott originally attached to direct. The movie would then jump around studios, and lose Scott to Black Rain, before it ended up at 20th Century Fox with Kathryn Bigelow directing.

Bigelow was married to James Cameron at the time, who was on the same lot making The Abyss. Iliff is honest that Cameron and Bigelow wrote the “production draft” of the script based on his original screenplay. One moment that Cameron specifically added was apparently the famous scene of Keanu Reeves' Johnny Utah jumping out of a plane after Patrick Swayze’s Brodie without a parachute.

As far as who gets the credit, the Writers’ Guild of America determines credit by having a jury of other writers review multiple drafts of the script, in order to determine who contributed what and decide how many of the authors should receive credit for the final product. W. Peter Illiff received sole screenplay credit, with Illiff and King receiving Story credit.

I’m not sure anybody would blame Illiff for being frustrated by Cameron’s recent comments that he deserves credit for writing the film. However, that doesn’t appear to be happening. Illiff, who says he hasn’t seen James Cameron in years, doesn’t appear to be bothered by the issue. He continued…

Illiff would go on to write the Harrison Ford-led Patriot Games and Varsity Blues, both the film and the follow-up TV series. James Cameron would go on to direct three of the top five highest grossing movies ever made. It seems everything turned out fine for all involved.

The Sully family is back. Just three years after The Way of Water, the third installment of James Cameron’s Pandora epic, is set to hit the big screen (with very specific instructions from the filmmaker, at that). Avatar: Fire and Ash hits the 2025 movie calendar on December 19, continuing Jake and Neytiri’s story following the events of the previous film. Critics have seen the movie, and they’re split over whether the gorgeous-looking product justifies its runtime and repetition.

This time around, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña’s characters have joined the Metkayina clan, who encounter the “Ash People,” an aggressive Na’vi group led by Oona Chaplin’s Varang. First reactions to screenings saw critics noting some repetition in the narrative, and in CinemaBlend’s review of Avatar: Fire and Ash, Corey Chichizola agrees that there are fewer new aspects to Pandora this time around. The stakes, however, make it feel like more than the middle section of a larger franchise. He rates the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and writes:

Bill Bria of SlashFilm, meanwhile has no notes, giving Avatar: Fire and Ash a perfect 10 out of 10. The critic acknowledges the overlap that some are complaining about but says there are so many new concepts, creatures and cultures that claims of repetitiveness are nitpicking. Bria thinks this offering is the best so far, writing:

Max Scoville of IGN admits to experiencing some déjà vu, with some of the visuals and story beats treading close to those in previous films, but its lack of newness is made up for with the familiarity of the characters and a more-than-satisfying ending. The critic gives it an “Amazing” 9 out of 10 and says:

David Rooney of THR says Fire and Ash’s “been-there, bought-the-T-shirt fatigue” is hard to ignore, especially with a bloated runtime of over three hours. This critic has had “enough with the Modigliani Smurfs already,” writing:

Robbie Collin of The Telegraph also wonders if we need (or even want) more from the Avatar franchise when the third movie had so little to add. Collin lists the repeated scenes, which include another pterodactyl race, a bioluminescent sensory bath and more snorkelling with plesiosaurs. Rating the film just 1 out of 5 stars, the critic says:

The Rotten Tomatoes score of Avatar: Fire and Ash reflects critics’ divide over this third installment, rating it a collective 68% (compared to Avatar’s 81% and its sequel’s 76%). However, by all accounts, the world of Pandora is still one to behold — especially in 3D — so if this is a movie you’ve been looking forward to, you can catch it in theaters starting Friday, December 19.

James Cameron is used to pressure. He’s felt it 12,500 feet below the ocean’s surface, trapped in a submersible near the wreck of the Titanic. He’s felt it pioneering new filmmaking technology, betting entire studios on ideas that sounded unreasonable at the time. And once again, he’s feeling it as the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash heads toward its 2025 movie schedule release; Disney pressed for him to cut the film's runtime.

The latest tension centers on runtime and character focus. As Cameron explains, Disney had familiar concerns about the film's length and whether audiences really needed so much time with Colonel Miles Quaritch, the franchise’s long-running antagonist. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Academy Award–winning filmmaker framed the pushback as part of a decades-old studio mindset, one he believes no longer reflects how audiences actually engage with movies. He explains:

According to the Terminator franchise creator, Fire and Ash originally ran for almost four hours before being cut to three hours and 15 minutes. Early screenings received a very positive response, with people eager to see it again, although there were still some common complaints, many of which concerned the movie's length. He says he reads all the feedback and takes what matters into account, but he’s pretty strict about keeping the story's depth and the characters intact.

Quaritch, played again by Stephen Lang, isn't just your typical bad guy. He actually serves as an essential thread in the Avatar story, showcasing the darker sides of humanity and our unresolved issues. For Cameron, cutting these parts to make the film shorter would really diminish its emotional and philosophical impact.

The stakes for Fire and Ash are unusually high, even by Avatar standards. Cameron has acknowledged that the film’s performance will determine whether the planned fourth and fifth installments move forward as envisioned. While parts of those sequels have already been shot, their future hinges on whether audiences still show up for a three-hour-plus theatrical experience in a shifting moviegoing landscape.

That uncertainty has also prompted Cameron to reflect on his own future. After spending more than a decade immersed in Pandora, the director says he’s increasingly eager to explore other projects, including a new Terminator script, documentaries, and stories that step outside the Avatar universe. He’s been candid about feeling at a crossroads: whether he wants Fire and Ash to be such a massive success that it locks him back into years of sequels, or just successful enough to give him the freedom to pivot.

Still, the visionary moviemaker isn’t hedging creatively. He remains adamant that spectacle without emotional investment doesn’t last, and that audience engagement matters more than shaving minutes to squeeze in an extra showing. For a filmmaker who built his career on taking risks others warned him against, that philosophy hasn’t changed. If Avatar: Fire and Ash is going to work, James Cameron believes it has to work on its own terms — length, Quaritch, and all.

Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third chapter in the long-running Pandora saga, hits theaters on December 19, 2025. Be sure to check your local listings for showtimes.

Although Netflix delivered the stellar anime Terminator Zero last year, the fact of the matter is that the franchise as a whole has seen better days. Terminator: Dark Fate, although more well received critically than its immediate predecessors, was a box office bomb in 2019, and there’s no indication when the film series will continue. But it’s not entirely dead, as James Cameron is working on a new Terminator movie. Now the man who directed and co-wrote the first two movies has shared a key detail about this forthcoming installment that I think is just the shakeup this franchise needs if it actually gets off the ground.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has starred in all but one of the Terminator movies, and even in Terminator Salvation, his likeness was used for the T-800 that attacked John Connor, Kyle Reese and others. However, Cameron informed THR that this new Terminator movie will not involve Schwarzenegger at all, telling the publication:

A Terminator movie without Arnold Schwarzenegger, or at least his face, might sound strange at first but I definitely approve of this creative decision. As someone who likes Terminator: Dark Fate more than some, but also acknowledges its flaws, this franchise is in desperate need of a full refresh. As great as the first two Terminator movies are, there are elements in them that are now outdated and feel very much of a specific time. Dark Fate (which you can stream now with a Paramount+ subscription) did its best to both appeal old fans, like bringing Linda Hamilton back as Sarah Connor, and draw in newcomers, but the end result clearly didn’t pay off.

So it’s time to wipe the slate clean, and that includes bringing in a new cast. To be fair, Hamilton has made it clear she’s done with Terminator, and I imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger wouldn’t be shocked to know he’s not being brought back for Terminator 7. There’s still a place for science fiction stories about rogue machines warring against humanity, they just need to be handled in a different way that’s more befitting this time when AI actually factors into our lives. Using new actors also further emphasizes how the previous Terminator era is over, and now we’re entering uncharted waters.

Still, it’s unclear if James Cameron’s Terminator movie will actually move forward, let alone if he’ll direct it or pass it off to someone else. I really hope he can get some positive momentum going for this project in 2026, because this sci-fi franchise deserves to be reborn. And hey, if you want the re-experience Arnold Schwarzenegger’s glory days as the T-800, watch the first two Terminator movies with your Netflix subscription.

Avatar: Fire And Ash is one of the most exciting 2025 movie releases left, chiefly because of the potential it has to become another box office phenomenon. It follows The Way of Water, which became one of the highest -grossing movies ever alongside the first Avatar. When James Cameron made The Way of Water, he also simultaneously made Fire And Ash, so I had to ask the filmmaker how the audience reaction of the first sequel may have affected the upcoming release. Let’s get into how he answered.

Avatar 2 & 3 Were Shot At Once, But What Happened After Way Of Water’s Release?

During CinemaBlend’s conversation with James Cameron for Fire And Ash, I asked the writer/director/producer what might have changed about the third Avatar movie after the second movie came out. In his words:

Now, when James Cameron initially wrote the sequel to Avatar, the story that became The Way of Water and Fire And Ash was actually one very long script until it was decided to split things up into two movies. That being said, both movies were initially shot at the same time over five years ago at this point. But as Cameron told us, he thought of the process of releasing both movies as a “fluid” process. As he also shared:

It’s pretty wild to imagine that both movies were filmed all that time ago, until you look at how the Avatar kids have grown up since and realize it. As Cameron told us, while a lot of it was filmed back with Way of Water, he did call up the actors and do some additional filming following the second movie’s release. Oh, and the movie wasn’t even fully done until about a month ago.

The Changes Made To Fire And Ash After The Way Of Water

That leads us to some changes that should be noted as you watch the movie this weekend , which our Avatar: Fire And Ash review says “sticks the landing” amongst many reactions from early viewers. As Cameron pointed out:

You can look forward to Jake reuniting with his flame-colored flying animal, which Cameron initially had in store for the fourth movie. He also told us about one element that was inspired by audience interest:

Payakan is, of course, the whale-like Tulkun that Lo’ak befriends in Way of Water. After seeing how people reacted to this part of the storyline, he decided to extend the storyline. Cameron also said this:

The audience will certainly play a part in what is next for Avatar as well, given the filmmaker also recently said it’ll need to make “two metric fucktons of money to make a profit.” You can see Avatar: Fire And Ash in theaters starting December 19.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is almost here, and while it remains to be seen if the film will make the massive piles of cash it needs to make to be considered successful, it will likely still make a lot of money, and much of that will come from the additional cost of tickets sold in 3D.

James Cameron is a major supporter of 3D technology in cinema, and he recently claimed that one of the major reasons it hasn't seen more mainstream adoption is due to it frequently not being presented at its best in theaters. Cameron obviously wants Avatar: Fire and Ash to be presented as well as it can be, which has resulted in him sending a letter (reprinted on Twitter) to theaters around the country, asking them to review the projection specifications for the film so that it can be seen and heard at its best. Check out the full letter below.

Cameron calls theaters “critically important” to the presentation of Avatar: Fire and Ash, as ultimately, how any individual experiences the film depends on the theater in which they see it. Two people can have radically different opinions on a film that are greatly influenced by its presentation.

I recently learned firsthand just how important this is. I was able to attend an early screening of Avatar: Fire and Ash, and during about the first 20 minutes of the film, the 3D was completely non-functional. The issue was addressed, and the rest of the movie went just fine. Somebody who pays a not insignificant amount of money for a 3D movie ticket is going to be quite upset if they have similar issues this weekend.

It’s a safe bet that a lot of people buying 3D movie tickets this weekend haven’t bought one since Avatar: The Way of Water was released. This is, in large part, because the number of movies released in 3D is way down from where it was a few years ago. However, the general reputation of the format isn’t that positive. Most movies released that way today are done as post-production conversion, a process that is generally understood to create a less desirable end product than filming the movies in 3D, as Cameron has always done with Avatar.

James Cameron has been managing expectations in recent weeks, seemingly indicating that he’s far from sure he’ll be going back to New Zealand to shoot two more Avatar movies as had been the plan. If that doesn’t happen, then it’s possible that Fire and Ash could be one of the last major 3D releases we ever see. If that’s the case, hopefully theaters will make sure it looks amazing.

James Cameron is a truly legendary filmmaker, and one of the most prolific visionaries we have with us today. His movies are pretty synonymous with using cutting-edge technology, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the Avatar franchise. The sci-fi property burst into theaters back in 2009, although we had to wait over a decade for its sequel The Way of Water to arrive. Luckily he shot the second and third movies at the same time, which is why moviegoing audiences are being treated to the threequel Fire and Ash this holiday season.

Fire and Ash picks up almost immediately after the events of the second film. But instead of being narrated by Sam Worthington's Jake Sully, instead we're in the POV of his second-born son Lo'ak, played by Britain Dalton. In many ways, this third movie feels like more of a sequel to The Way of Water than a brand new, third chapter of this saga. For casual fans, any necessary exposition is delivered early on to remind them of the events of the first sequel.

The full cast is back for Fire and Ash, chief among them being Worthington and Zoe Saldaña. We also follow Jake and Neytiri's kids, Stephen Lang's Quaritch is in his Na'vi body, and the Water People we were introduced to in the last chapter. The world of Pandora expands in the third movie with the Mangkwan clan a.k.a. the Fire People. This is the first time we've the Na'vi have been in conflict with each other, and newcomer Oona Chaplin gives an instantly iconic performance as the villainous Varang.

Of course, there is also the looming conflict with the RDA, which is unrelenting in its quest to drain Pandora of its natural resources. That storyline brings in various human characters, including Edie Falco's General Ardmore and Giovanni Ribisi's Parker Selfridge. Quaritch pivots between the RDA and the Mangkwan, allowing for a strange alliance to be formed between these two factions.

What results is another epic movie in scope, one that is full of huge character revelations, surprisingly emotional moments, and (of course) beautiful visuals that offer a sense of escapism.

Fire And Ash is a meditation on grief.

Avatar: The Way of Water's ending was a devastating one due to the death of Neteyam. This loss is very much at the heart of he story for the third movie, especially since it picks up to shortly after that death. When the movie opens, Lo'ak describes how grief has affected the Sully family as a whole, in particular Saldaña's Neytiri.

Rather than being the emotional center of the story as she was in the previous two movies, Neytiri is in the throws of grief and is angry at all of humankind for the loss of her son. That includes their adopted son Spider, with the tension in their relationship reaching a boiling point during Fire and Ash.

Despite being in a fantastic world full of giant blue creatures, this very human story allows the third Avatar film to be relatable for those of us on planet Earth. This an emotional entryway for moviegoers to feel invested in the Sullys throughout their wild third adventure on Pandora.

The third Avatar movie has less whimsy and more story.

The Avatar franchise is known for its stunning visuals, which are made all the more palpable when watching the movies in 3D on the big screen. That's certainly still the case in Fire and Ash, but there are far fewer new aspects of Pandora offered this time around. And as a whole, the threequel feels more focused on its larger, character-driven story than the wonder and awe that came with the first two installments.

The 2009 original was introducing us to Pandora, and every creature and bioluminescent setting was new and exciting. When The Way of Water finally brought us back to that fictional planet, the Metkayina clan brought new creatures and the underwater world of the planet to the big screen. But aside from the brief Windtraders sequence, the third movie don't introduce us to new side of the Na'vi. The Fire People ride Ikran just like the Sullys, even if they're painted new colors.

If something was missing for me in Fire and Ash, it's probably this lack of wonder. Instead, I'm in a world that I know and understand, allowing James Cameron's characters to take center stage. I wouldn't fault this pivot for a shorter movie, but the Avatar franchise isn't exactly known for its brevity.

The runtime is long, but the ending offers a number of payoffs.

Speaking of which, Avatar: Fire and Ash has a runtime of a whopping 197 minutes. And while there is plenty to enjoy in the threequel, the longest in the franchise thus far, those extra minutes can be felt. Certain sequences could be cut down to trim the fat, and ensure that audiences aren't exhausted by the time the movie's third act arrives.

That being said, it's a pretty excellent ending. Each character gets their moment to shine, and there are a number of sequences that I found quite moving thanks to how much time we've spent with the Sully family. So, even though at times I was looking at my watch to see what time it was during lulls in the movie, I was certainly giving it my full attention during its most important beats.

And while Fire and Ash is the third installment in a previously announced five-movie plan, the stakes don't make it seem like simply the middle point in a larger franchise. James Cameron kills off a number of major characters throughout the threequel, and makes major character developments for those who survive. And by the end, I was ready to see where things go next.

Overall, Avatar: Fire and Ash is an impactful and visually striking film. While it might be a bit too long for some modern audiences, James Cameron sticks the landing with a moving, character-driven story.

James Cameron has another movie on the horizon, and it’s the highly anticipated Avatar: Fire and Ash. One of the biggest titles on the 2025 movie schedule, Cameron’s sci-fi threequel is earning attention not just for the stellar 3D effects it boasts but also because of the financial elements at play. A lot has been reported about how much the movie supposedly costs to make. Now, Cameron himself is speaking out after being asked and, when that happened, he dropped a few F-bombs.

What’s evident upon even seeing a snippet of footage from one of the Avatar films is that they’re technical achievements, and it costs quite a bit of money to make such blockbusters. As of late, it’s been alleged that Fire and Ash has a production budget of $400 million, though that hasn’t been formally verified by Bob Iger or other Disney execs. James Cameron was faced with some finance-related questions recently and quipped that those queries were for Iger. Still, Cameron offered up this take on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast:

While promoting this latest film, Cameron has been notably conservative when discussing the future of the Avatar franchise, for which he’s plotted two more movies. Despite those plans, the Oscar-winning filmmaker is cognizant of the fact that blockbusters are making less money at the box office and that production costs are increasing. What Cameron ideally wants is to continue telling stories about Pandora and the Na’vi but do so in a cost-effective way.

This, of course, all begs one question: what will James Cameron do with his franchise if Fire and Ash doesn’t make enough money. Well, he told CinemaBlend that he’s ready to make the fourth and fifth films. Cameron also told Matthew Belloni, however, that should the box office returns not work in his favor this time, he’s prepared to conclude the story of Jake Sully and his family:

Cameron also said he could write a book in under to wrap up lingering plot threads, which seems like a viable option as well. Still, as a fan, I’d love to see the other two films produced as Cameron would ideally prefer. As of late, box office analysts have been forecasting what kind of haul Cameron’s new movie will pull in. We ultimately can’t say what that final cume will be, at this point, but it is worth mentioning that the Canadian filmmaker’s movies have historically had legs at the movie theaters. That’s a big reason why the first two Avatar movies are two of the Top 3 highest-grossing films of all time.

Time will tell if Disney’s latest investment in James Cameron’s long-running franchise will pay off. Fans can check out (the reportedly pricey) Avatar: Fire and Ash when it opens in theaters on December 19. In the meantime, fans can prepare for the upcoming action movie by streaming the first two films in the series using a Disney+ subscription.