Avatar: Fire and Ash will be longer than Avatar: The Way of Water

Released in 2009, director James Cameron’s film Avatar became the first movie to officially gross more than $2 billion. Then it took him thirteen years to get a sequel into theatres, so it wasn’t clear if the follow-up was going to be able to replicate that success. But then, sure enough, Avatar: The Way of Water also grossed more than $2 billion, paving the way for not only Avatar 3, or Avatar: Fire and Ash, (which is scheduled to reach theatres on December 19, 2025) but also Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 – which will be released on December 21, 2029 and December 19, 2031, respectively. The first Avatar was quite long, with a running time of 2 hours and 42 minutes, but Avatar: The Way of Water surpassed it, going on for 3 hours and 12 minutes. Now, Cameron has confirmed that Avatar: Fire and Ash will be even longer.

Speaking with Empire, Cameron said, “In a nutshell, we had too many great ideas packed into act one of movie 2. The [film] was moving like a bullet train, and we weren’t drilling down enough on character. So I said, ‘Guys, we’ve got to split it.’” As a result, “Movie 3 will actually be a little bit longer than movie 2.“

Cameron crafted these sequels with a writers room that consisted of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (who worked on The Way of Water and Fire and Ash), Josh Friedman (who was assigned to write Avatar 4), and Shane Salerno (assigned to write Avatar 5). Silver told Empire, “The characters needed to breathe. These movies are a lot more than just propulsive plot and gorgeous spectacle. I mean, these are real characters.” In fact, some of these characters are based on the writers themselves. Like Cameron said, “These characters are amalgams of us, our childhoods, our role as parents, the mistakes we made, and probably to some extent continue to make as parents. I mean, Jake is a hard-ass motherf*cker. He’s very hard on his kids. Well, that’s me.” Meanwhile, the relationship between the characters Lo’ak and Neteyam was inspired by the relationship Rick Jaffa has with his older brother.

The cast of Avatar: Fire and Ash includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Jemaine Clement, Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass, Filip Geljo, Dileep Rao, Matt Gerald, David Thewlis, and Oona Chaplin, who takes on the role of Varang, leader of the antagonistic Ash Clan.

Cameron has said that he also has ideas for a potential Avatar 6 and 7, but they’ll only be made if there’s still a demand for the franchise. “They’ll be just far enough apart that they remain events, hopefully, in the lives of fans, of people who want to follow us, but not so far apart that it’s like there’s a generational difference between one movie. We’re fortunate we survived that, right? We got over that hurdle. So now we believe it’s going to come at the right pacing.“

Are you looking forward to Avatar: Fire and Ash, and are you prepared to watch an Avatar movie that’s longer than Avatar: The Way of Water? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Avatar: Fire and Ash will be longer than Avatar: The Way of Water appeared first on JoBlo.