Everything to Know About the Upcoming Avatar Sequels

After the massive success of Avatar: The Way of Water, which grossed a whopping $2.3 billion at the box office, director James Cameron is continuing to work on the Avatar franchise.

The first two films, released in 2009 and 2022, respectively, have become the No. 1 and No. 3 highest-grossing movies of all time — and audiences are eager to see what happens next in the franchise.

While the production of Avatar 3, 4 and 5 is relatively secretive, Cameron and producer Jon Landau have shared a bit about the films, giving fans hints at what to expect from the franchise moving forward.

When speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in January 2023, Cameron revealed, “We decided we needed to leap way ahead to places that people couldn’t have predicted [for The Way of Water] and we’re gonna do that again with movie 3 as well."

The franchise's third installment is expected to hit theaters in 2025, with Avatar 4 following in 2029 and Avatar 5 in 2031, and that may not be the end of the story. While talking to PEOPLE in February 2024, Cameron said that he already has ideas for even more films in the franchise.

“We're fully written through movie five, and I've got ideas for six and seven, although I'll probably be handing the baton on at that point,” he said. “I mean, mortality catches up. But I mean, we're enjoying what we're doing. We're loving it. We get to work with great people.”

From the growing cast to the plot, here's everything to know about the upcoming Avatar sequels.

What is Avatar 3 about? 

As with the previous Avatar projects, Cameron has remained incredibly quiet about the plot of Avatar 3. However, he did reveal one key aspect of the movie — when speaking to France’s 20 Minutes in early 2023, Cameron said the next sequel will center around a new race of people who personify another element.

“Fire will be represented by the Ash People,” Cameron told the program. “I want to show 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 will do the opposite."

Cameron also said that the Avatar storyline is just getting started. "We will also explore new worlds while continuing the story of the main characters," Cameron revealed. "I can say that the last parts will be the best. The others were an introduction, a way to set the table before serving the meal."

When will Avatar 3 be released?

Originally, Avatar 3 was scheduled to release in December 2024, but Disney later altered its premiere lineup for a whole slew of film franchises, including Star Wars, Avengers and the Avatar sequels. Avatar 3 is now scheduled for a December 2025 release, with the later films arriving in 2029 and 2031.

Zoe Saldaña posted the news on Instagram in June 2023 and joked about the delays. “Great! I’m gonna be 53 when the last avatar comes out,” the actress wrote. “I was 27 when I shot the very first Avatar movie.”

Despite the delays, Cameron told PEOPLE in December 2023 that "three is actually much more straightforward than two" regarding production.

Has Avatar 3 already been filmed?

Avatar 3 has already been filmed and is currently in post-production. Cameron took an atypical approach to the sequels and filmed Avatar 2 and 3 at the same time. He told Entertainment Weekly in December 2022 that he did this to avoid his teenage actors appearing too old in the later films, comparing his dilemma to a popular Netflix series.

“I love Stranger Things, but you get the Stranger Things effect where they're supposed to still be in high school, and they look like they're 27," the director said.

Cameron specifically mentioned his concerns over star Jack Champion, who Cameron said was “growing like a weed.” The production team was also worried that COVID-19-related delays would force them to recast the final sequels.

“I was imagining scenarios where we don't go back to work for a year and a half and we're completely screwed because he's [Champion] aged out, and then we have to go back and reshoot with another guy," Cameron said. The director's worries did not come to fruition, though — the production team worked out a deal with the New Zealand government to let a small team continue filming in order to get the shots they needed.

Who is in the cast of Avatar 3?

Fans will see many familiar faces returning for the third film, including Sam Worthington (Jake Sully), Saldaña (Neytiri), Sigourney Weaver (Dr. Grace Augustine and Kiri), Joel David Moore (Norm Spellman), Champion (Javier 'Spider' Socorro), Stephen Lang (Colonel Miles Quaritch) and Britain Dalton (Lo'ak).

Cameron also confirmed to PEOPLE in December 2023 that Kate Winslet will reprise her Way of Water role in the third installment with training from "a husband and wife shaman practice."

"When you see her [Winslet] doing that purification ritual to try to revive Kitty in the film and some of the stuff that she's going to do in movie three, that's based on actual practice," Cameron said of Winslet's work in Avatar 2 and 3.

There will also be a bunch of new actors joining the cast, including Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh, Game of Thrones star Oona Chaplin and Harry Potter alum David Thewlis.

What is Avatar 4 about?

Much less is known about the plot of Avatar 4, which will be released in December 2029. However, in an Entertainment Weekly interview in 2022, Cameron said that on page 35 of the fourth film's script, there’s a big move forward in time, allowing the young actors to age up naturally within the film’s storyline.

“They're young men, young women at that point, when we get to the B side of that time jump,” he told the publication.

Cameron told PEOPLE more specifics on the plot's progression in December 2023. "We see them and then we go away for six years and we come back," the director said. "And so the part where we come back is the part we haven't shot yet. So we'll start on that after three is released."

He also told Collider in 2022 that the studio loved the Avatar 4 script. “I can’t tell you the details,” Cameron said, “but all I can say is that when I turned in the script for 2, the studio gave me three pages of notes. And when I turned in the script for 3, they gave me a page of notes, so I was getting better.”

He continued, “When I turned in the script for 4, the creative executive over the films wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy f---.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are the notes?’ And she said, ‘Those are the notes.’ Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way, right?”

Has Avatar 4 started filming?

Some of Avatar 4 was filmed in tandem with 2 and 3 and is already completed.

When appearing on Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace in early 2023, per The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron talked about his timeline for the upcoming sequels.

“Avatar 4 and 5 are both written. We even have some of 4 in the can. We’ve begun a franchise at this point. We’ve begun a saga that can now play out over multiple films.”

Landau previously confirmed this schedule in a 2022 interview with Variety. “We’ve completed most of the first act of Avatar 4 and there were logistical reasons why we needed to do that," the producer said. "We’ve designed most of the whole movie for Avatar 4 but we haven’t actually filmed all of it — just the first act.”

What is Avatar 5 about?

Speaking to Gizmodo in 2022, Landau revealed a major plot point from Avatar 5, which will be released in December 2031 — the producer said that the fifth film will bring the Na’vi to Earth.

“I wasn’t going to talk about it, but I’ve now subsequently heard that Jim [Cameron] has talked about it a little bit,” the producer said. “In movie five there is a section of the story where we go to Earth. And we go to it to open people’s eyes, open Neytiri’s eyes, to what exists on Earth.”

Landau’s statement also revealed that Neytiri (Saldaña’s character) will survive the next two sequels and be an integral character in the final film.

“Earth is not just represented by the RDA [the evil organization in the film; the abbreviation stands for Resources Development Administration], just like you’re defined by the choices you make in life, not all humans are bad," Landau said. "Not all Na’vi are good. And that’s the case here on Earth. And we want to expose Neytiri to that.”