Avatar: Fire and Ash could be the end of the franchise, reveals director James Cameron
The director has designed a failsafe in case he doesn't get the chance to make more Avatar movies.
Avatar director James Cameron has revealed the series' latest instalment, Fire and Ash, could mark the end of the franchise.
Fire and Ash, Cameron's third Avatar film, is due to be released next month after a three-year wait, significantly shorter than the eight-year gap between the first and second films.
Fire and Ash is technically the midpoint in an ambitious five-part film series, but in an interview for an upcoming issue of Radio Times Magazine (due out on Thursday 4th December 2025), Cameron revealed he designed the series so that its first three films feel like a complete trilogy.
"If it all ends with this film that’s OK," he says. "Because it’s not a cliffhanger ending. It all resolves in a very satisfying way."
The film is set only one year after the events of The Way of Water, and opens with the Sully family still living with the Metkayina clan whilst they grieve Neteyam's death. It will then introduce us to a new Na'vi tribe known as the Ash People, who live in a volatile volcanic region of Pandora and are in alliance with the human RDA causing conflict to escalate.
If further entries do happen, however, Cameron already knows the direction they'll take.
He explained that the fourth and fifth Avatar films would involve a six-year time jump and would feature Neytiri making her way to a dystopian Earth. The scripts are written ("they’re pretty good!"), and a portion of Avatar 4 has been filmed, but for now their fate depends on the box-office performance of Fire and Ash.
"I would love to make those movies," says Cameron, sounding uncharacteristically cautious. "But I’m a bit more pessimistic than I normally would have been."
His fear is that the media landscape has changed. "Cinema has become a few selected films that people believe will be an experience that’s worth leaving their homes for," he says. "Post-Covid and post-streaming, it’s a depressed industry right now. And it doesn’t seem to be bouncing back."
Avatar: Fire and Ash will debut in cinemas on Friday 19th December 2025 in the UK.
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Authors
Phoebe Kowhai Barnes is a Freelance Writer who covers pop culture and entertainment programmes for the Radio Times. She previously worked as the Senior Assistant Editor at The Tab where she managed its local department. She obtained a BA (Hons) in English Literature from University of Nottingham.
