- Will introduce us to Ash Clan and Wind Traders
- Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña returning
- In cinemas worldwide December 2025
James Cameron is set to give the world his latest Avatar instalment, Avatar: Fire and Ash but it has been hampered by delays since it was announced.
Thankfully, it is now looking hopeful that we’ll be taken back to Pandora by the end of 2025, with a slated release date of 19 December. The threequel will be in 3D and IMAX formats, just like the previous two films.
With 2009’s Avatar and its sequel, Avatar: The Way of The Water, coming 13 years later, the franchise is truly a box-office juggernaut, bringing in over $5 billion globally. 2023’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora video game allowed fans to get their Na’vi fix, but it’s time for a return to the big screen, with two further sequels planned too.
What is the plot?
While the plot has been firmly kept under wraps, writer/director James Cameron has revealed some insights to his thinking:
“It took a long time to come up with a title that I felt resonated with what’s in the film,” Cameron explained to Entertainment Weekly. “If you think of fire as hatred, anger, violence, that sort of thing, and ash is the aftermath. So what’s the aftermath? Grief, loss, right? And then what does that cause in the future? More violence, more anger, more hatred. It’s a vicious cycle. So that’s the thinking.”
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One thing we do know is that audiences will be introduced to a new clan in the sequel and a look at the diverse cultures of the Na’vi. In Avatar we had the Omaticaya, who live in the forest of Pandora and in Avatar: The Way of Water we had the introduction of the Metkayina, the tribe that live in the coastal regions.
This time we’re going to see the Ash People, a villainous group led by Varanga, who reside in the volcanic regions, leading to ideas that we’re set to witness a Na’vi vs Na’vi showdown.
Speaking to Empire, Cameron said that Varanga is the “leader of a people who have gone through an incredible hardship. She’s hardened by that.
He continued, adding: “She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil… One thing we wanted to do in this film is not be black-and-white simplistic.
“We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.”
Cameron told French news outlet 20 Minutes, “I want to reveal the Na’vi from another angle because so far I have only shown their good sides. In the early films, there are very negative human examples and very positive Na’vi examples. In Avatar 3, we’ll do the reverse.”
Jack Champion, who joined Avatar in the second movie starring as Spider, shared “I was very shocked by Avatar 3. It just takes a hard left turn, and that’s not a bad thing. You think you know where it’s going, but then a wrecking ball comes”.
Cameron has also teased the appearance of Wind Traders – travelling nomadic creatures that live in the skies of Pandora. “They’re nomadic traders, equivalent to the camel caravans of the Spice Road back in the Middle Ages,” Cameron told Empire in early 2025. “And you know, they’re just fun. Like all Na’vi, they live in a symbiosis with their creatures.”
He added: “If you’ve got any nautical blood in your veins, you’ll want to be on [their] ship.”
Who is starring in Avatar: Fire and Ash?
Returning cast members include Sam Worthington as Jake Sully, Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri and Sigourney Weaver as KiriSam Worthington.
Kate Winslet also reprises her role as Ronal, and whilst her role in Avatar: Way of The Water was minimal, we can expect to see more of Ronal in this film. Cameron told GQ Today: “The big advance in this movie is just going to be greater character depth…you get more into the heart and soul of the characters. And there’s some very interesting new characters that come in as well”.
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New additions to the cast will include Oona Chaplin, known for her roles in Game of Thrones and Taboo, portraying Varang, the leader of the Ash People, and David Thwelis playing the Na’vi character, Peylak.
Chaplin spoke to the UK’s Independent newspaper about how much she enjoyed acting in a motion-capture suit: “I’m a very physical person,” she says, “and I’ve always wanted to physically inhabit a character in much bigger ways than the screen can often afford me. And so it felt really good to finally unleash my inner beast – to jump and fly and fight!”
Of Chaplin’s performance, the director gushed that the star “is so good that I didn’t quite appreciate how good her performance is until we got the Wētā animation back.”
He added:“She’s an enemy, an adversarial character… but [Chaplin] makes her feel so real and alive.”
Cameron has also revealed that Lo’ak (voiced by Britain Dalton) will replace Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as the narrator for Avatar: Fire and Ash.
What tech has been used?
Avatar 2 and 3 were shot in the unconventional Sony VENICE 3D IMAX format, a camera system originally dubbed ‘J Cam’ that Cameron developed with Sony to capture high-quality 3D footage in frame rates of up to 60fps. A new filming technology called Deep X was also created to better enable Cameron to capture 3D imagery underwater.
In August 2024 at the D23 convention – the ultimate Disney fan event at the Honda Center located in Anaheim – Cameron told fans “Every day when I am reviewing the new shots with the VFX folks, it’s like Christmas morning. They are just so amazing. The characters are so alive, so you care about them so much. They all just feel so real.”
Cameron’s ambition is clear and it’s fair to say he consistently pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in filmmaking. His commitment to enhancing the cinema experience for audiences is truly deserving of applause.“Avatar 3 is not what you expect, but definitely what you want”, Cameron also told fans at D3.
