Everyone wants Michelle Yeoh involved in their movies, and who could blame them? She’s the originator of the “Madame Morrible, MM, flip it around, Wicked Witch!” who knows what else her mind could come up with on another movie set. James Cameron has been hoping to bring Yeoh onto Pandora and has found the perfect opportunity to bring her on board for Avatar 4, if there is one. “Michelle is definitely going to be in 4, if we make 4,” Cameron shares to TVBS News, per People. He already has a vision in store for her: she would be a Na’vi named Paktuelat, but didn’t specify what tribe she would be a part of. Cameron has already conquered land, sea, and fire in the world of Pandora, but maybe there’s a tribe of Na’vi living underground. The official X account for the Avatar films previously stated that Yeoh would play a character named Dr. Karina Mogue. But it might be possible that Cameron thought of another role for her, or maybe she transforms into a Na’vi, like how Jake Sully did in the first film.
Despite making over $1 billion globally, Cameron is still concerned about whether a fourth film would be approved by Disney. “So, here’s the thing: the movie industry is depressed right now. Avatar 3 cost a lot of money. We have to do well in order to continue. We have to do well, andwe need to figure out how to make Avatar movies more inexpensively in order to continue,” he explains. Either way, maybe Yeoh can at least act out her part in the press conference Cameron promises to host if the fourth and fifth movies don’t get made.
Sharad Devarajan and Dr. Mark Sagar have launched FaiBLE Media Inc., a Silicon Valley startup focused on merging artificial intelligence with storytelling to develop new narrative technologies and unlock scientific breakthroughs in creative expression. The company will be officially unveiled Jan. 16 at the AETHER Summit in Singapore.
The Palo Alto-based company brings together Devarajan, an award-winning creator and producer serving as CEO, with Sagar, a two-time Academy Award-winning technologist and AI pioneer of virtual beings, as chief AI officer. Sagar built revolutionary facial systems for “King Kong” and “Avatar,” earning two Academy Awards for scientific and technical achievement.
FaiBLE’s mission centers on understanding the fundamental structures that drive narrative resonance with audiences and building tools and experiences based on those insights. The company describes its long-term research initiative as “The AlphaFold of Storytelling,” drawing parallels to how AlphaFold decoded protein-folding patterns by revealing hidden biological structures.
“Throughout history, humanity has stumbled upon foundational creative scientific discoveries only rarely every few centuries. If I went back 2,000 years and drew an image with linear perspective, it would have felt like magic to the person of that time,” said Devarajan. “From musical scales to the Hero’s Journey, every great creator seeks to understand the science of their craft. AI now gives us the ability to find them intentionally rather than by accident. FaiBLE is dedicated to uncovering the next wave of these transcendent tools to spark a new creative renaissance.”
Devarajan serves as adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, where he has taught a course on artificial intelligence and disruptive technologies for nearly a decade. He founded Graphic India, a leading Indian comic book and animation company, and created “The Legend of Hanuman,” one of the most successful animated series in Indian history.
Sagar later pioneered AI-driven virtual beings, including the Baby X project, which explored biologically-inspired neural system models for autonomous animated agents.
“The intersection of AI and storytelling represents one of the most exciting frontiers in technology and art,” said Sagar. “We’ll be exploring the most effective mechanisms by which stories create meaning, evoke emotion, and become timeless. These are scientific questions as well as artistic ones, and AI gives us unprecedented tools to explore them.”
A key focus involves developing “Quantum Stories,” technology enabling dynamic story worlds rather than fixed linear narratives. The platform allows audiences to explore unique narrative paths through characters, timelines and perspectives while AI maintains consistency and canonical integrity across experiences.
“Quantum Stories represents a fundamental shift in how narrative canon is formed,” Sagar said. “In traditional media, canon is static and authored from the top down. In Quantum Stories, canon is alive, continuously expanding while remaining internally consistent. This was not feasible before AI. No human writers’ room or branching narrative system could sustain coherence across vast numbers of individualized storylines. We believe this represents an entirely new storytelling opportunity where a creator’s vision can be expanded a thousandfold.”
FaiBLE views India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America as natural pioneers for these new storytelling formats, citing these regions’ vast narrative traditions, large audiences and readiness to embrace innovative mediums.
“We believe the next generation of iconic story experiences and formats will emerge from creators willing to experiment, innovate, and pioneer new frontiers,” said Devarajan. “That spirit of creative risk-taking is at the heart of everything we are building at FaiBLE.”
The company was incubated at Graphic India and maintains creative and production connections across India and other global markets. FaiBLE is currently assembling a multidisciplinary team spanning storytelling, animation, technology and AI research.
The AETHER Summit, taking place Jan. 15-16 at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, is an invitation-only global forum organized by Media Partners Asia that brings together leaders across artificial intelligence, immersive and generative technologies, connectivity and infrastructure, creativity and content, and global capital.
(CNN) — Moviegoers flocked to theaters for Disney’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” on the last weekend of the year, solidifying the sci-fi adventure film’s place as one of the biggest blockbusters of 2025.
The third installment of director James Cameron’s “Avatar” films raked in another $64 million domestically Friday through Sunday, and roughly $181.2 million internationally, bringing its worldwide total to $760.4 million.
“Fire and Ash” is the No. 6 highest-grossing film worldwide this year, having overtaken popular releases like Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Superman” and Sony Pictures’ “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” in just 10 days.
Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of CNN.
The big-budget “Avatar” franchise, which includes films from 2009 and 2022, has proved it can still draw large audiences to theaters with its spectacular visual effects.“Fire and Ash” has earned $96 million globally on IMAX and is expected to become IMAX’s biggest Hollywood release of the year, according to Disney.
“Premium formats (are) a huge factor for ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash,’ despite the fact that consumers are price-sensitive,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.
Audiences were also drawn to a diverse slate of movies this weekend. Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” which opened on Thanksgiving, finished No. 2 at the box office with $20 million, a 35% jump from last weekend, according to Comscore. “Zootopia 2” has grossed $1.4 billion worldwide — the second-highest-grossing movie of the year.
“(‘Zootopia 2’) gets the Most Valuable Player award for the holiday season,” said Dergarabedian, who noted that PG-rated movies earned $2.87 billion this year, while outperformingPG-13 movies.
At No. 3 was A24’s “Marty Supreme” — the sports comedy-drama starring Timothée Chalamet — which grossed $17.5 million amid a surge of attention on social media. It was driven by a male-dominated “Marty Army,” according to A24, with one-third of the movie’s audience being under 25 years old.
A24’s “Marty Supreme,” a ping-pong sports drama, attracted young audiences to theaters. Credit: A24 via CNN Newsource
After opening in six theaters last weekend in New York City and Los Angeles, “Marty Supreme” rode a wave of Oscar and online buzz to propel it to box office success in over 2,600 theaters, according to Shawn Robbins, director of movie analytics at Fandango and owner of Box Office Theory.
“(A24) catered to the old and new mindsets of marketing a movie like this around the holidays, knowing that it would be an award season player,” he said.
Lionsgate Films’ “The Housemaid,” which opened last weekend, was No. 4 this weekend at $15.4 million. It was followed by Sony Pictures’ “Anaconda” ($14.5 million), a reboot of the 1997 movie.
Angel Studios’ “David” ($12.69 million) finished sixth, ahead of Paramount’s “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” ($11 million). Focus Features’ “Song Sung Blue” opened this weekend at No. 8 with $7.6 million.
This was the best Christmas week for the box office since 2020, according to Robbins.
“To have most of these seven major releases opening around Christmas do relatively well, and you either meet or exceed expectations — that has not happened very much in the post-Covid era,” Robbins said.
Sony’s “Anaconda,” a comedic remake of the 1997 horror flick, finished fifth overall. Credit: Matt Grace / Sony Pictures Entertainment via CNN Newsource
The overall domestic box office has grossed $8.76 billion in earnings in 2025, according to Comscore data. That’s up 1.56% from last year but still behind 2023, the only post-pandemic year to boast $9 billion in earnings.
Box office numbers are still well behind 2019, when domestic earnings totaled more than $11 billion.
But successful December films could carry over into a strong start for 2026, according to Dergarabedian, who estimates another $100 million can be added by the end of the year.
Dergarabedian said a strong release slate for movies next year could give theaters their best year since the pandemic.
Some of next year’s biggest movies include Universal Pictures’ “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” (April 3) and “Disclosure Day” (June 12), as well as Disney’s “Toy Story 5” (June 19). “Avengers: Doomsday” and Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Dune: Part Three” are both slated for December 18.
James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash dominated the long Christmas weekend with a four-day earnings of $88 million, including $64 million for the three-day weekend proper.
While it’s lagging behind the last film at the same point its run, Fire & Ash is still a monster, grossing another $181.2 million overseas for a global tally of $760.4 million through Sunday, including $217.7 million domestically and $542.7 million overseas. And with a week to go before the holidays are officially wrapped, it should be at $1 billion by the end of next weekend.
That would give Disney dominion over the only three 2025 movies that crossed $1 billion at the 2025 worldwide box office behind Zootopia 2, which — no joke — placed No. 2 over for the three-day weekend proper with $20 million all the way in its fifth outing and Lilo & Stitch. While this is all great news for Disney, it’s a sobering reminder as to why domestic box office revenue for 2025, which came in behind 2024 at $8.8 billion.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying. There were too few events pics, although the eclectic mix of presents under the Christmas Day tree resulted in the best holiday in terms of overall revenue since the pandemic.
A24’s high-profile period pic Marty Supreme — starring Timothée Chalamet as a 1950s table tennis champion — was the biggest surprise in grabbing second place over the four-day weekend $27.1 million, the best opening in the history of the indie studio.
In a surprise upset, Chalamet’s film easily came in ahead of Sony’s Anaconda, which also opened on Dec. 25. The Jack Black-Paul Rudd film, skewered by critics, opened to $23.6 million domestically over the four-day holiday weekend for a global start of $43.7 million, in line with expectations.
Marty Supreme began made headlines the weekend before Christmas with a record-breaking per-location average of $145,913 across six locations in New York City and L.A., the best in A24’s history and the best of any film since 2016’s La La Land. Sporting a pricey budget of $60 million to $70 million, it is reportedly the most expensive movie ever made by the indie studio. (Period pics are expensive!)
In his review for THR, chief critic David Rooney says Marty Supreme reinvents the sports comedy. “Marking the first time since his 2008 solo debut that Josh Safdie has directed a feature without his brother and longtime collaborator Benny, Marty Supreme turns out, paradoxically, to be his most Safdian movie to date. Propelled by a hot-wired Timothée Chalamet as a cocky operator aiming for global table tennis glory, this genre-defying original is an exhilarating sports comedy, a scrappy character study, a thrumming evocation of early ‘50s New York City — plus a reimagining of all those things. Think of it as Uncut Gems meets Catch Me If You Can and maybe you’re halfway there.”
Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion and Tyler, the Creator also star in this tale of an aspiring table tennis champion angling to ping pong his way out of 1950s Lower East Side Manhattan.
Chalamet has stopped at nothing to help market the movie — including becoming the first person to stand atop The Sphere in Las Vegas — and it appears to be paying off. In the weeks leading up to the film’s release, he wrote and directed a staged Zoom call with A24’s marketing team in which he presented increasingly ridiculous ideas to promote Marty Supreme. One of the ideas presented actually became reality: fly a bright orange rented blimp with the movie’s title imprinted on each side. While there was talk of a cross-country tour, the blimp is based in the Los Angeles area. The Zoom also resulted in the idea for Safdie and the cast to light the Empire State Building orange ahead of the New York premiere.
The big question facing Marty Supreme is whether it can break out and play to mainstream audiences, versus the more traditional specialty crowd.
Other Christmas victors included Lionsgate’s The Housemaid, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, and Angel Studios’ faith-based David is headed for an impressive fifth-place finish after posting an opening-day gross of $4.6 million on Dec. 25.
Christmas Day falling on a Thursday is a dream scenario for theater owners, since the long holiday weekend will be free and clear. And the week between Christmas and New Year’s is one of the most lucrative for moviegoing, considering that schools and colleges are closed, with many adults off from work as well.
Just before Christmas, Paramount announced it was moving The Legend of Aang, the first animated theatrical film for Avatar: The Last Airbender, from a theatrical release to Paramount+. The reactions to this news ranged from shock and dismay to anger at the proposition, and now fans of the 2005 kids’ series are trying to do something about it.
Avatar fans recently launched an online petition for the studio to put Aang back on its theatrical slate, which at the time of writing has over 17,500 signatures. As the petition’s author, Ananth, wrote, Paramount’s decision was “a disappointment to the devoted fandom. A theatrical release [for Aang]…will amplify its reach, drawing in curious viewers who may not engage with streaming platforms, thus expanding its audience exponentially.”
Comments under the petition are filled with longtime Avatar fans voicing their support for Paramount to put the film back in theaters, with one in particular catching some attention online. That would be one from a user under the name “Steve Ahn”—the same name as the co-director for Legend of Aang—that voiced frustration with the studio. “Worked on this film, first leading one of the teams, and eventually directing. Very frustrated about studio higher-up’s decisions,” the comment reads. Along with calling for a theatrical release, the comment claimed there were “a LOT of frustrating, unfair moves” made by Paramount.
However, Ahn himself has since said on Twitter he didn’t make that “misleading comment” and wanted to make it clear in light of the mention about shedding information on the film’s production. “I hope this official clarification prevents any further rumors or false speculation, and I sincerely hope the dedicated artists of this film are not unfairly criticized or put in a difficult position due to such unauthorized comments,” he added.
I am truly grateful for the passion shown in the Avatar petition. However, I must clarify that someone has impersonated me and left a misleading comment. I am not the author of that post, and I hope this official clarification prevents any further rumors or false speculation.
Even without the explicit support of Ahn behind them, the Avatar fandom clearly isn’t enthused about Legend of Aang being shifted to streaming. Whatever reason one has for not liking it, it’s exactly not great that a studio can suddenly upend how any film comes out. What’s happening with The Legend of Aang isn’t too dissimilar from when networks were cancelling shows they’d already renewed—and if anything, the move has become even more concerning as Paramount has designs on gobbling up other studios.
The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender will release sometime in 2026. Whether that also includes a theatrical window is entirely up to Paramount.
Avatar is the number one movie franchise in the world, and with it’s star studded cast, many people are wondering if Indian actor Govinda actually had a cameo in the third film, Avatar: Fire and Ash.
According to Bheeshm International’s YouTube (via the Hindustan Times), the actor claimed that he was offered a role in the first movie by James Cameron himself. “I had met a Sardarji in America and gave him a business idea that worked. Some years later, he made me meet James Cameron. He asked me to do a film with James, so I invited them for dinner to discuss it. James told me the hero in the film was handicapped, so I said I am not doing the film. He offered me ₹18 crore for it and said I would be required to shoot for 410 days. I said that is okay, but if I paint my body, I will be in the hospital,” he claimed.
But did it all work out, and was he really in the third movie?
Was Govinda in Avatar: Fire and Ash?
No, Govinda was not in Avatar: Fire and Ash. The video that’s been circulating has been made by AI (artificial intelligence). In the video, Govinda’s face is superimposed on a Na’vi body, and is not made with the motion capture technology that James Cameron uses for the characters.
Director Pahlaj Nihalani had also rebuffed Govinda’s claims that he was approached by Cameron for the film in a conversation with PinkVilla. “That Avatar was actually my film. I had started it before Rangeela Raja. I don’t know if later he made the film differently,” he said. “I even gave the remake rights for it. I don’t know why he said that.”
While overall box office revenue won’t make any gains in 2025, the same can’t be said of Disney.
The studios sprawling film empire on Wednesday will cross the $6 billion mark in global box office revenue for the year, having earned $5.967 billion globally through Tuesday, including $2.310 billion domestically and $3.656 billion internationally.
This marks the first time Disney has hit $6 billion since 2019, just before the pandemic struck and decimated moviegoing. Even before COVID, clearing $6 billion was no easy feat. No other studio has done so since 2015, while Disney is a now a five-time multiple offender (2016-2019, 2025).
Disney’s success this year has been fueled by 16 wide releases, led by the only two titles that have crossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office: Zootopia 2, which has earned $1.311 billion to date, and Lilo & Stitch, which topped out at $1.038 billion earlier this year. Thanks to some nifty math, Disney is also reporting that three Marvel Studios’ titles have collectively grossed more than $1.3 billion worldwide, even if not one title did so on its own; The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts* and Captain America: Brave New World.
Other titles helping to propel Disney past $6 billion were Predator: Badlands, Freakier Friday and Elio, albeit at much smaller numbers.
James Cameron‘s Avatar: Fire and Ash is the icing on the cake, grossing $450.1 million at the global box office after only seven days in release, including worldwide earnings of $51 million on Tuesday. In North America, it topped Tuesday’s chart with $16.5 million for a domestic tally of $119 million. Overseas, it finished the day with a foreign tally of $331.1 million.
Avatar 3 is easily expected to dominate the long Christmas weekend (Thursday-Sunday) with a four-day gross of $70 million to $75 million, if not more. Sony’s comedic adventure Anaconda, teaming Jack Black and Paul Rudd, opens nationwide on Dec. 25 alongside Timothée Chalamet‘s Marty Supreme and Focus Features’ music-infused Song Sing Blue, starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. They join a crop of films opening last weekend that wanted to a jump on the holiday. In addition to Avatar, these include Lionsgate’s femme-skewing The Housemaid, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried; Angel Studios’ faith-based David; and Paramount’s The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, which still hopes to hunt down families after a soft debut.
Anaconda, Song Sing Blue, and Marty Supreme — which is expanding nationwide after opening in New York and L.A. last weekend to supremely impressive numbers after a massive marketing blitz by its leading man — will all hold Wednesday previews before opening everywhere on Christmas Day, which can be a busy day for moviegoing once presents are unwrapped.
Avatar: Fire and Ash includes a crisis lifeline in the end credits for a good reason.
James Cameron and 20th Century Studios’ Avatar: Fire and Ash, also known as Avatar 3, opened in the United States this past weekend. The sequel to Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water sees Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, and Stephen Lang reprise their respective roles as Jake Sully, Neytiri, and Colonel Miles Quaritch.
Some Avatar audiences have noticed that there’s a suicide prevention hotline in the closing credits of Avatar: Fire and Ash. While this confused some and led others to make jokes, there’s actually a good, narrative-related reason as to why this is in there.
Why is there a crisis lifeline in the end credits of Avatar: Fire and Ash?
In the first half of Avatar: Fire and Ash, there’s a scene where Jake and Neytiri’s Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) briefly puts a gun to his head and considers pulling the trigger. This is shortly after he gets into a fight with his father, as both of them are still in various stages of processing the death of Jake’s son/Lo’ak’s brother Neteyam (Jame Flatters).
Filmmakers are strongly encouraged to include suicide prevention hotline numbers or other resources whenever a project, be it a movie or a TV show, addresses this subject matter. Per the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand, “We do know that suicide on screen can cause significant distress, and can, in some cases, lead to vulnerable viewers becoming suicidal. If you’ve lost a loved one to suicide, struggle with suicidal ideation or have attempted suicide in the past, you deserve a heads up so you can make the best decision for yourself. If you need to give these shows or movies a miss, there’s no shame in that! Self-care means checking in with yourself about how you’re feeling and what you can cope with, and making the best decisions for you.”
Avatar: Fire and Ash is now playing in theaters.
Originally reported by Brandon Schreur at SuperHeroHype.
Varang, the seductive leader of the Mangkwan clan—also known as the Ash People—is the most dynamic character in Avatar: Fire and Ash. She’s physically powerful (and often wielding flaming arrows or dual blades); she’s full of rage and intensity. And she’s brought to life by Oona Chaplin, who’s best known for playing Robb Stark’s ill-fated wife on Game of Thrones—and for being the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, as well as the great-granddaughter of Eugene O’Neill.
But back when she first auditioned for the third film in James Cameron’s epic film series, Chaplin was as far away from the world of showbiz as she could get: living in a tree house she built herself in Cuba. “There was very, very little in this world that would’ve taken me out of the tree house. But the call from James Cameron certainly did,” she tells Vanity Fair.
Before decamping for Cuba, Chaplin had been working in the Calais Jungle—a refugee and immigrant encampment in the vicinity of Calais, France. After that incredibly difficult experience, she needed to go off the grid. “I’d gone through a little bit of a personal life crisis, and I decided to live in a tree house in the jungle in Cuba,” she says. “I built it with a couple of drunken neighbors.”
Chaplin actually shot the role in 2017, when Cameron filmed The Way of Water and Fire and Ash simultaneously. She had to spend nearly a decade keeping details about her character secret. “But because the process was so rich and fulfilling, there was a part of me that kind of put it to bed,” she says. “I was like, ‘cool. Even if the film never comes out, I’m happy.’ I feel like I accomplished and learned so much as a person, as an artist.” Since then, Chaplin has gotten married, had a child, and moved to Sonoma County, California, where she lives on a 20-acre farm with her family.
Now that Avatar: Fire and Ash is finally out, Chaplin spoke to Vanity Fair about her transformational journey, her surprising inspiration for the fiery leader, and what it’s like to carry the last name Chaplin.
I don’t love the Avatar films as much as I should, and that might be directly correlated to the number of movies I’ve seen across the years of my life. I’m fully aware that James Cameron and his team of technical geniuses have, with Pandora, built a world that is gorgeous in which to get lost, like a black light poster in a dorm room, but the scripts, going back to the original, feel like an amalgamation of other better movies.
Visually, the Avatars are works of limitless originality, but those plots not only cannibalize dozens of classic movies from across the decades, but also the Avatar movies themselves.
Back in 2009, Avatar took the white savior narrative of Dances with Wolves and smashed it together with the world-building and environmental messaging of FernGully: The Last Rainforest with astonishingly popular results. If the technical aspects of Avatar weren’t so groundbreaking (with still unmatched motion capture, 3D, and CGI), then I’m not sure these movies would have grossed billions in the box office, making Avatar the highest grossing film of all time and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water the third highest-grossing. They’re not necessarily bad movies; they just don’t say anything we haven’t seen a million times. Or at least I haven’t.
Will the new Avatar: Fire and Ash make billions like its older siblings? Time will tell, but as a film, I think it’s probably the strongest of the three, with the same amount of derivative storytelling, but improved in its character work and arcs, with more exciting action and interesting plot directions for future installments. I still don’t necessarily care about what I’m looking at, but I’m at least entertained by what is onscreen.
Sam Worthington is still mostly stoic and wooden as Jake Sully, once a marine and now fully entrenched in his life as a Na’vi: ten-foot-tall, blue, indigenously coded space kitties. Along with his racist and nearly feral wife and baby momma, Neytiri (the always mesmerizing to watch Zoe Saldaña) and their four children of equal or lesser interest (including a pre-teen Sigourney Weaver and a white kid with dreads who says “bro” a lot), the Sully clan must band together to fight evil corporate and military colonizers, a psychotic, volcano-dwelling tribe of Na’vi called the Mangkwan and Colonel Quaritch, a Colonel Kurtz-esque marine who is torn between his dedication to the military and his desire to be a ten-foot-tall kitty cat.
We’re probably going to be watching Avatar movies for the rest of our lives as Cameron has a chunk of Avatar 4 already filmed (so that the kids don’t age too much) and Avatar 5 is planned, plotted and mostly scripted. There’s a lot of room for stories to be told in the world of Pandora, and the Sully family is just the tip of the iceberg (or at least it should be). It makes sense that Jake was the main character of the original because he served as an audience surrogate, exploring Pandora at the same time as we did. But now he feels like an impediment to more complex stories told in this universe. I’m pretty over the Sully family now. Or at least Jake.
Most of Avatar: Fire and Ash feels like Way of Water 2.0 with several of the same story beats and character arcs recycled once more. Again, all of it is very pretty to look at and I was never bored for any of its 200-plus minutes, but I’ll forget most of it within days, just as I did the previous ones. I think the Avatar movies might be the only ones in history that make as much money as they do, but leave no real cultural footprint. Yes, the Na’vi are iconic as a design, but ask the average viewer to name one of the Sully kids or how/why Sigourney Weaver was cloned and they won’t have a clue. Cameron and his team of writers seem more interested in playing around with their own Campbell-esque, archetypal hero monomyth tropes than actually telling a captivating story.
Cameron has made some of my favorite movies of all time with Terminator 2, The Abyss, and Aliens, but I wish I understood why he has spent so much time in the twilight of his career on these movies when I know he has better work in him. So far, the high water mark of the Avatar trilogy for me is the second hour of The Way of Water, which just sees the Sully kids swimming around and exploring the oceans of Pandora. No story, no cringey dialogue, just a mesmerizing tech demo in which to get lost. Cameron is still a visual master, regardless of the goofiness of these movies, I just hope we get another masterpiece before he retires.
Still, the villains are great (including a scene-stealing Oona Chaplin as a psychedelic space witch), the 3D and IMAX projection is breathtaking, and the messages involving conservation, anti-colonization, and pro-indigenous protection are important.
I respect what Cameron is doing with these movies more than I actually like them, but as long as he is behind the camera, he has earned my three hours of attention. Even as the realization slowly dawns that these movies just might not be my thing, I’m ultimately resigned to the fact that I’m probably not done with Pandora yet and it’s certainly not done with me.
2025’s holiday movie season has a big flick in this weekend’s Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third entry in James Cameron’s long-running sci-fi series. After the first movie dropped in 2009, a 13-year wait helped make 2022’s The Way of Waterinto one of the biggest movies that year, making a lot of money and winning some awards. How does this new film fare with just a standard three-year gap?
Reactions to Fire and Ash feel generally in line with that of the first two films: gorgeous visuals, set pieces, and scale, everthing else is kind of perfunctory. (And, y’know, it’s long as hell.) The big selling point for the threequel is the introduction of the Ash People, the first evil Na’vi clan to grace the films. Said clan is led by Oona Chaplin’s Varang, who strikes up a romantic relationship with series baddie Quaritch (Stephen Lang) in ways that are apparently very compelling to watch play out on screen when they’re not trying to kill the Sully family. Meanwhile, the Sullys are still coping with the death of eldest son Neteyam from the last movie and discover there may be a way for humankind to live on Pandora.
While we all wait to see how Avatar: Fire and Ash does on the box office level, tell us what you thought of the film. Loved it, hated it, think Cameron will get to make those next two movies? Let us know in the comments below.
With Avatar 3 hitting theaters this weekend, there are a few things fans of the first two movies might want to know about Fire and Ash before stepping into the theater.
James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash will be the third film in the Avatar franchise, which began in 2009. Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña are reprising their respective roles as Jake Sully and Neytiri in the film, while Oona Chaplin will play a villain named Varang.
What should people know about Avatar: Fire and Ash before seeing the movie?
Fans should know that Avatar: Fire and Ash differs from many other blockbusters in that one of the main themes of the film is faith and grief.
ComingSoon’s Jonathan Sim wrote in his review, “Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) finds himself questioning his belief in Eywa after the death of his son, struggling to reconcile his loss with the idea of a guiding spiritual force. Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), on the other hand, clings fiercely to her faith because it’s the only thing keeping her grounded. Their emotional divide is subtle but powerful, representing two very human responses to tragedy. Neytiri’s grief is further complicated by her deepening prejudice against humans, whom she holds responsible for her son’s death. The film doesn’t shy away from the uglier sides of grief, allowing resentment and anger to coexist with love and devotion.”
Additionally, Sim and many other critics have noted that some narrative elements in Fire and Ash can feel similar to the previous two Avatar movies, along with other Cameron movies.
Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri said, “Cameron remixes a lot of his favorite motifs in Fire and Ash: There’s bits of Aliens, Terminator: Judgment Day, and The Abyss in here, and a whole lot of Titanic (again). There’s also quite a bit of Way of Water in here, too, which may feel to some like a franchise cannibalizing itself.”
Lastly, it’s worth knowing that Avatar: Fire and Ash may very well be the last film in the franchise. While there were initially plans for Avatar 4 and Avatar 5, and no decision has officially been made as of yet, Cameron has been open about other projects he wants to make and has said that he’s willing to walk away from Avatar if this doesn’t wind up being a major box office hit.
Netflix is acquiring Estonian startup Ready Player Me, a company creating “cross-game avatar tech” that allows players to bring their digital personas with them to different games, the company’s CEO Timmu Tõke shared in a LinkedIn post. The acquisition is part of Netflix’s new games strategy, which puts an emphasis on approachable multiplayer titles and adaptations of the streaming service’s IP.
Ready Player Me’s team of around 20 employees will be incorporated into Netflix’s staff, TechCrunch writes, though Tõke is the only one of the startup’s four founders who will continue on after the acquisition. Neither company has shared when the avatar tech will be incorporated into Netflix’s games or what games will support the feature when they do.
Besides designing its avatar system to be easy for developers to implement in their games, Ready Player Me’s big pitch for their system is using AI to automatically redesign avatars for different games’ art styles and “automatically fit assets to any avatar rig or topology without manual work.”
Netflix has taken multiple different approaches to games in the last few years, but lately, the company has actively retreated from AAA development and its more ambitious projects. Other than the premiere of its take on HQ Trivia, Netflix’s last few game announcements of 2025 were focused on a collection of streamable party games, and a partnership with FIFA to release a new soccer sim in 2026. All of those projects could support avatars in one form or another, now Netflix just needs to decide how.
December is here, and with it, a new Avatar movie. These movies keep making that holiday money, and the upcoming Fire & Ashlooks to keep that going. But if for whatever reason, it underperfomed and this was the last movie in the series? James Cameron’s got a contingency plan.
On a recent episode of Matt Belloni’s “The Town” podcast, the filmmaker said he was “absolutely” prepared to close the book on the franchiseif needed, acknowledging he’s been “in Avatar land for [30] years. If this is where it ends, cool.” He’s not open to completely handing things over to someone else—”I could produce it. I don’t think there’d ever be a version where there’s another Avatar movie that I didn’t produce closely,” he mentioned—but if need be, he’ll tie things up with a book.
Yes, really: there’s apparently just one open story thread at the end of Fire & Ash, and he’ll bring it to the page. But again, that’s only if this new movie underperforms. Why is this on his mind? He mentioned concerns of “forces” like “sequelitis,” streaming, and covid that would keep audiences away. Funnily enough, these were also concerns to be raised about The Way of Water in 2022, and look how that went. To his point, though, 2025’s not been the best year for franchise: audiences generally bounced on M3GAN 2.0 and Thunderbolts, to the point Blumhouse admitted it might’ve overestimated interest in its killer cyborg.
Then again, Wicked: For Goodand Zootopia 2 both look ready to make a killing at the box office over the next few weeks, so we’ll see how Avatar: Fire & Ash does when it lands on December 19.
It’s just over a month until Avatar: Fire and Ashtakes over the holiday weekend (and over 1/3 of your day), and Disney did what Disney often does: put out one final trailer during a football game.
Like the trailers before it, this one highlights main baddie Varung, leader of the Na’vi Ash People clan, and her teaming with Quaritch to further his war against Jake Sully and the Metkayina. That war will take place everywhere—on land, sea, and air—and gets complicated when they learn humans are beginning to physically acclimate to life on Pandora.
Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters on December 19, and tickets went on sale this morning.
The decades-long labor of love James Cameron and his Avatar family have put into building out the world of Pandora is a feat his Avatar: The Way of Water leading lady thinks should be chronicled deeply as a testament to the art of performance capture.
In an interview with musician Alicia Keys for By Design, who notes herself as an Avatar fan, Zoe Saldaña revealed that in time that’s something the legendary director may get to. You know, after whatever follows Avatar: Fire and Ash. Saldaña told Keys, “I’m excited that James Cameron is considering a documentary about the making of Avatar—finally giving us the chance to explain, in a meticulous way, why performance capture is the most empowering form of acting. It gives us the credit, the ability to own 100 percent of our performance on screen. With animation, you might go into the studio for [a few] sessions; that’s as much as they’ll need you for the whole movie. You go into a studio, however you’re dressed, and you lend your voice, right?”
She continued describing the immense work that goes into an underrecognized art form: “Performance capture means that Avatar wouldn’t exist if Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, myself, and the entire cast didn’t get up and put those dots on our faces. We put on that little unitard with all those dots on it, and step into a volume—that’s what we call the set—that’s rigged on the ceiling, with all these cameras in measured positions. They’re all pointing into this space that finds us, and feeds that information into the system that is Pandora.”
Elaborating on the nearly decade-long process in between films, where it’s clear, like stunt work (which is finally getting an Oscar category in 2028), performance capture needs to be given its credit, according to the actress.
“It takes an average of seven years between [each Avatar film]. From the archery, the martial arts, the free diving, the scuba diving—so that you can hold your breath underwater for longer than five minutes—to the language [Cameron] conceived out of thin air, to physically training with former gymnasts, circus performers, and acrobats so you can learn how to walk like an extraterrestrial human species…”
Emphasizing the scope of work that Cameron orchestrates on a massive scale with his Avatar ensemble, Saldaña shared, “That’s all us, and a group of incredible stunt actors that make our characters feel bionic. God bless them. With the technology that Jim creates, he gives the artist the power of complete ownership. It’s beautiful. I told him, ‘I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Terminator, Aliens, Ellen Ripley, The Abyss.’ At 10 or 11 years old, I would watch [the behind-the-scenes] over and over and over again. I liked the sacrifice that goes into putting something together. It’s art.”
Zoe Saldaña said in an interview with Beyond Noise that James Cameron is “considering a documentary about the making” of the “Avatar” movies, which the Oscar-winning actor is keen on because it will “finally give us a chance to explain, in a meticulous way, why performance capture is the most empowering form of acting.”
“It gives us the credit, the ability to own 100 percent of our performance on screen,” said Saldaña, who has long been a champion of motion capture acting and has been outspoken about award bodies such as the Oscars needing to consider it. “With animation, you might go into the studio for [a few] sessions; that’s as much as they’ll need you for the whole movie. You go into a studio, however you’re dressed, and you lend your voice, right? Performance capture means that ‘Avatar’ wouldn’t exist if Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, myself, and the entire cast didn’t get up and put those dots on our faces.”
“We put on that little unitard with all those dots on it, and step into a volume – that’s what we call the set – that’s rigged on the ceiling, with all these cameras in measured positions,” she added. “They’re all pointing into this space that finds us, and feeds that information into the system that is Pandora.”
Saldaña plays Neytiri in the “Avatar” films, which include 2009’s “Avatar,” 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” and the upcoming “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” Cameron intends to make two more “Avatar” movies.
“It takes an average of seven years between [each ‘Avatar’ film],” Saldaña said. “From the archery, the martial arts, the free diving, the scuba diving – so that you can hold your breath under water for longer than five minutes – to the language [James] conceived out of thin air, to physically training with former gymnasts, circus performers, and acrobats so you can learn how to walk like an extraterrestrial human species… That’s all us, and a group of incredible stunt actors that make our characters feel bionic. God bless them. With the technology that Jim creates, he gives the artist the power of complete ownership.”
Saldaña spoke to The Independent last year and called out the Oscars for continuing to snub motion capture performances. Be it the actors in the “Avatar” movies or Andy Serkis’ acclaimed motion capture work as Gollum in “The Lord of Rings” and Caesar in “Planet of the Apes,” motion capture acting has yet to break into the Oscar races.
“Old habits die hard, and when you have old establishments, it’s really hard to bring forward change,” Saldaña said on the topic. “And I understand that, so I’m not bitter about it, but it is quite deflating when you give 120% of yourself into something. I mean, not winning is ok, not being nominated is ok, but when you’re overlooked and then minimized and completely disregarded…”
Cameron told Variety as part of a Saldaña cover story last year that the Oscars are overdue to recognize her work as Neytiri in the “Avatar” franchise.
“I’ve worked with Academy Award-winning actors, and there’s nothing that Zoe’s doing that’s of a caliber less than that,” the director said. “But because in my film she’s playing a ‘CG character,’ it kind of doesn’t count in some way, which makes no sense to me whatsoever. She can go from regal to, in two nanoseconds, utterly feral. The woman is ferocious. She is a freaking lioness.”
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” opens in theaters Dec. 19 from Disney and 20th Century Studios.
Avatar has only recently returned to television, but Nickelodeon’s kept the anime franchise around through plenty of video games for consoles and phones over the years. Sure enough, there’s another title joining the lineup, but this one is a fighting game.
Currently called Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game, the title pits players in one-on-one brawls as characters from across the franchise. At launch, there are 12 characters, including Aang, Korra, Zuko, and Toph, and support characters can help pull off special moves similar to Mortal Kombat 1. While the launch roster is small, more will come via post-launch DLC. (The trailer makes sure to emphasize Last Airbender characters, so if you’re a Korra fan, you may have to wait for your faves to join the fray.) According to the Steam page, the game will also feature a single-player campaign with an original story, “flow system” combat mechanics with movement-focused gameplay, and crossplay support.
Developed by first-time studio Gameplay Group International, a big point in Avatar Legends’ favor is its hand-drawn 2D animation, which helps the game retain the visual style the franchise is best known for. These characters have been all over Nickelodeon’s larger brand games—including the two fighting-focused Nick All-Stars titles—so it’s only fitting the franchise gets a fighting game all to itself.
If Avatar Legends feels like your cup of tea, it’s intended to launch on Steam in summer 2026, with consoles to be announced at a later date. And if it doesn’t look appealing, good news: Saber Interactive, creators of Space Marine II, are developing an action-RPG for the franchise that may be a better fit.
20th Century Studios has released a new trailer for “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the third film in James Cameron‘s “Avatar” series, which is set to release on Dec. 19. The trailer shows the return of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family, this time at war with an enemy Na’vi tribe on Pandora.
Alongside Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Bailey Bass, Britain Dalton, Trinity Bliss, Jack Champion and Edie Falco are among the returning cast members. Meanwhile, Michelle Yeoh, Oona Chaplin and David Thewlis will make their debut in the series as new characters.
The first “Avatar” released in 2009 and became the highest grossing film of all time at the worldwide box office. It still holds that record, with a lifetime gross of over $2.9 billion. It’s sequel, “Avatar: The Way of the Water,” came out over a decade later in 2022 and grossed $2.3 billion at the box office, surpassing Cameron’s own “Titanic” as the third highest grossing film of all time. The two “Avatar” titles’ performances are only split by “Avengers: Endgame,” which grossed $2.7 billion in 2019.
Documentaries aside, the “Avatar” movies have been Cameron’s only directorial features of the 21st century. Cameron began developing “Avatar” in the 1990s, but it took over a decade for technology to catch up with the concept. The films’ special effects are handled by Weta Workshop and showcase pioneering filmmaking technology in motion capture and CGI.
A fourth “Avatar” movie is already expected to release in 2029, and a fifth in 2031.
