After months of teasing, it looks like a trailer for James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire & Ash” is expected to arrive later this month — and if rumors are to be believed, it may debut exclusively in theaters alongside showings of Marvel’s “Fantastic Four: First Steps.”
‘Fire & Ash’ has been in post-production since 2023, with Cameron once again collaborating with WETA Digital on pushing performance-capture tech to new limits. Cameron also recently confirmed that the film will be “a little bit longer” than the last instalment, which hit the 3-hour 12 minute mark.
Also, don’t expect the trailer to hit online the same day — Cameron has, in the past, preferred a window of theatrical exclusivity. If this rolls out like ‘Way of Water,’ we could see a trailer attached to ‘Fantastic Four,’ with an online release a week or two later.
“Avatar: The Way of Water,” released in late 2022, cost $400M to produce, and turned out to be the year’s most profitable movie, in the end grossing $2.3 billion worldwide. In addition, it placed James Cameron as the only filmmaker in history to have three movies among the top 20 highest-grossing of all time.
‘The Way of Water’ was seen as a major risk by many in the industry, but Cameron proved skeptics wrong, yet again. The result is that three more ‘Avatar’ movies are in the works, set for release in the next six years. ‘Avatar 3’ in December 2025, ‘Avatar 4’ will hit theaters in December 2029, followed by ‘Avatar 5’ in December 2031.
More recently, Cameron confirmed plans for ‘Avatar 6’ and ‘Avatar 7.’ The filmmaker will be 76 by the time the fifth one is released. The good news is that it sounds like he won’t be directing 6 and 7, stating he’ll be “passing the baton” to another filmmaker, or so he says. He’ll probably still have a major say in their creative direction.
‘Fire & Ash,’ the third installment in Cameron’s decade-spanning franchise, is slated for a December 19, 2025 release.