Avatar 3 is shaping up to be wild, with a 6 year time jump – and Kate Winslet going to shaman school for her role

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

James Cameron has shared some new updates about Avatar 3 – and the film sounds wild in the best possible way.

Speaking to People, Cameron revealed that the threequel would feature a major time skip. "We did the capture on three and the live-action photography on three as an intermingled production with [Avatar: The Way of Water], and we even did part of movie four because our young characters are all going to have a big time jump in movie four," Cameron said.

He added: "We see them and then we go away for six years and we come back. 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."

While Avatar 3 is introducing a new type of Na'vi, it will also feature plenty of familiar faces. One of those is Kate Winslet's Ronal. It seems we should never doubt Winslet's dedication to a role, as, after learning to hold her breath for over seven minutes for Avatar 2, she immersed herself in her character once more for the threequel.

According to Cameron, Winslet "went to school" to learn from "a husband and wife shaman practice," so she could study techniques for the third movie. "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," he commented.

We were already excited to head back to Pandora, but now we're even more excited about what Cameron has in store for us.

Avatar 3 arrives on December 19, 2025. It doesn't yet have a title, with producer Jon Landau debunking a popular rumor about its official name.

While you wait, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates for everything else the year has in store.

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I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.