“Avatar 4” and“ 5” Are 'Full Speed Ahead' After Third Movie Crossed $1 Billion at Box Office
“Avatar 4” and“ 5” Are 'Full Speed Ahead' After Third Movie Crossed $1 Billion at Box Office
Tommy McArdleFri, April 3, 2026 at 5:09 PM UTC
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Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington in 2025's Avatar: Fire and AshCredit: 20th Century Studios -
A producer on Avatar: Fire and Ash said that the planned fourth and fifth films are "headed forward" more than three months after the latest sequel hit theaters
Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 are currently expected to hit theaters in 2029 and 2031
Avatar: Fire and Ash is available on digital now, with a physical release set for May 19
The planned fourth and fifth movies in James Cameron's Avatar franchise are moving forward with preproduction, according to an executive producer who worked on Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Rae Sanchini, who is credited as an executive producer on the third movie in the franchise, told Inverse in an article published on Wednesday, April 1 that the fourth and fifth movies Cameron, 71, has previously discussed remain in development. “Right now we’re figuring out the schedule," Sanchini told the outlet. "We’re working hard on it right now, budgeting, scheduling, planning, building out our new pipeline for them. As far as we’re concerned, we’re full speed ahead.”
The fourth and fifth movies in the Avatar series, which do not yet have titles, have been scheduled to hit theaters in 2029 and 2031. However, Sanchini described those release dates as "tentative" and that the production intends to finalize release dates for the movies "in the not too distant future."
Sigourney Weaver in 2025's Avatar: Fire and AshCredit: 20th Century Studios
She also told the outlet that Cameron's production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, is utilizing "a more generally accessible platform" to build the Avatar franchise's state-of-the-art visual spectacle for the forthcoming sequels.
“We have the scripts, they’re brilliant,” Sanchini added. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re heading forward.”
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Fire and Ash, a sequel to 2022's The Way of Water, crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office in January, just weeks after it initially released. The movie finished its box office run after grossing $1.48 million globally. (2009's original Avatar and The Way of Water stand out as the top grossing movie ever and third highest-grossing film ever, respectively.)
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Oona Chaplin as Varang in 2025's Avatar: Fire and AshCredit: 20th Century Studios
Cameron previously suggested that he and the other producers behind the franchise "need to figure out how to make Avatar movies more inexpensively in order to continue” in a January interview. When Cameron appeared for a press conference at the Saturn Awards on March 8, the filmmaker said that it's "likely, but not 100%" that he makes the two planned instalments, according to Screen Rant.
Fire and Ash stands out as the longest installment in the Avatar series so far. The film picks up soon after the events of The Way of Water and finds the Sully family reeling after the death of Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri's (Zoe Saldaña) eldest son, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), as series villain Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) renews his efforts to find and capture Jake. Oona Chaplin also notably joined the franchise for the threequel as a Na'vi villain named Varang, who teams up with Quaritch.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is available on digital now, with a physical release set for May 19.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
