James Cameron always seems to be playing the long game, especially when it comes to his Avatar franchise. But ahead of the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash, he’s making something very clear, and that is that this next chapter should not be thought of as a sequel. In a new interview, the director, whose filmography includes some of the most beloved sequels ever made, explained that Fire and Ash represents something bigger, more structural, and more intentional than what the word “sequel” usually implies. He prefers to call it something different altogether.
Cameron said he’s comfortable with where Fire and Ash leaves things, even if the franchise never moves forward from here, though there have been rumors of plans for a fourth and fifth film. And that confidence comes from how he’s always envisioned the first three films, not as individual chapters churned out one by one, but as parts of a single, carefully built arc. Here’s how he put it to io9:
I don’t think of Fire and Ash as a sequel. I think it was a culmination of a saga. I like ‘saga’ better than ‘sequel’ because a lot of where we were going with the story was in the original architecture of the story. So if you think of this as the third act, I think that’s healthier. As opposed to a typical Hollywood sequel, where they make a bunch of money with a movie and then they’re like, ‘Oh, crap. We’ve got to scramble around and get a new script. Maybe it’s not so good, but let’s just shoot it and get it out there.’
The Titanic director went on to clarify the Avatar team’s approach to the series. He continued:
That’s not what we’re doing here at all. It’s a long game. And I went into it knowing that we’d be playing a long game and betting that the audience would come along with us and care about these people. Because they may be 10 feet tall and blue, but they’re people.
This isn’t just semantics for the iconic filmmaker. Calling Fire and Ash the culmination of a saga repositions the upcoming movie release for fans: as the third act of a story laid out years ago, rather than a reactive follow-up designed to capitalize on the last film’s success. And it’s a compelling way to frame it — especially given how meticulously the Aliens helmer has planned Pandora, the Sully family’s trajectory, and the emotional spine running through the series.
Interestingly, this framing also tees up Cameron’s feelings about the franchise's potential future. While Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 are still technically on the calendar, not the 2026 movie calendar, but slated for 2029 and 2031, he isn’t pretending they’re sure things. In fact, he says that if they do happen, they’ll form an entirely separate narrative arc. He added:
It’s its own saga. It’s got a beginning and a middle and an end that plays out across these two films. They’re vaporware right now.
In the end, the future of those next chapters depends on what happens now. Avatar: Fire and Ash is about to hit theaters, and its critical and box office performance will decide whether Cameron gets to dive into that second saga. Then again, counting out the man who created Terminator is rarely wise. Three of his films sit in the top five highest-grossing movies of all time, with first and third place belonging, of course, to the Avatar franchise.
For now, though, he’s content. If this is the end of the first Avatar story, it’s exactly the ending he planned. And in true James Cameron fashion, that plan has been in place from the start.
Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters on Dec 19, 2025. And, if you’re looking to revisit the first two flicks, they’re streaming with a Disney+ subscription.
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