Fire and Ash release date announced

Before Avatar: The Way of Water hit theaters in December 2022, director James Cameron had largely completed work on the third film in the series.

Cameron told Entertainment Weekly that he shot clips from the third and fourth films in advance to avoid the “Stranger Things effect,” in which the appearance of child actors changes significantly between films.

“They should all still be in high school [but] “They look like they're 27,” the director said of the Netflix series in December 2022. “You know, I love the show. It's OK, we suspend our disbelief. We like the characters, but, you know.”

Cameron described The Way of Water star Jack Champion, who plays the human teenager Spider, as a “growing weed.” He added: “We shot Jack when he was 14 and 15, almost up to 16. So we shot him over an 18-month period.”

In August 2024, Cameron announced to attendees at the D23 Expo that the third film in the series would officially be called Avatar: Fire and Ashes.

“You're going to see a lot more of Pandora than you've ever seen before… It's an insane adventure and a feast for the eyes, but it's also about a lot more emotionally than ever before,” Cameron said during the presentation. “We're going into really challenging territory for all the characters you know and love.”

“We're in a very hectic two-year post-production phase right now,” he said at the 2023 Screen Production and Development Association conference in New Zealand. “So it'll be Christmas '25.”

Disney has announced that Avatar: Fire and Ashes will be released in theaters on December 19, 2025.