This December, the long-awaited Avatar: Fire and Ash will finally arrive, marking the third entry in the franchise. Considering the first two films have made multiple billions of dollars at the global box office, it’s all but certain that the already planned Avatar 4 and 5 will be happening in short order. However, it appears leading man Sam Worthington isn’t taking the sequels as a given.
Speaking recently with Variety, Worthington was asked about the status of the next two Avatar films. All he did was confirm that James Cameron has written the scripts, and that there are plans to film them. Of course, that's all assuming that Fire and Ash shows that fans are still interested in the franchise. The actor explained:
Jim has written [films] four and five. He’s continued the saga in the writing. Some of us got lucky to read where it goes. Those movies – if we’re lucky enough to connect [with audiences] again, we’re not arrogant enough to assume that they’re gonna keep connecting. So you just really hope that they find an audience and find a way, and then we got to make the others.
When the plan for four additional Avatar films was originally confirmed, we were told that the movies would be filmed in two blocks, with the second and third installments being filmed together, and the final two films set to be filmed at once, with production starting sometime after the release of the threequel.
Sam Worthington might be playing coy and not revealing everything he knows. However, based on the way he’s talking, it sounds like there haven’t been any conversations about when filming for the next two films will commence. They may really be waiting until next year to even begin the conversation.
Considering that Avatar: The Way of Water made over $2 billion at the global box office, officially putting to bed any arguments that nobody cares about Avatar, it seems odd that the other two sequels are still so up in the air. Of course, anything could happen. There was a decade between the first two Avatar films, but we’ll only have three years between the second and third. Maybe people really will be less excited now.
Of course, if for some wild reason the final two Avatar movies don’t materialize, it means there will be some filming that has already happened will never see the light of day. Worthington confirmed that early scenes in Avatar 4 have already been shot. As for why that photography took place, Worthington alluded to a time jump that will occur early in the fourth film:
We shot a little bit out of four, because there’s a bit where the kids age up. I mean, we did that back in 2018 [or] 2019. We shot a bit with the kids, because there was a scene or two where the kids had to be the same age. Now, the kids are like 10 years older, and I don’t think it’s a secret that those kids jump a bit in time if we get the opportunity.
Avatar 4 is currently slated for a 2029 release, with Avatar 5 following in 2031. That is, of course, assuming that production gets underway on time. In the meantime, grab a Disney+ subscription and stream the first two movies in the saga.
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