Despite a trio of billion-dollar successes, the relative underperformance of Avatar: Fire and Ash had left some considering whether we would be returning to Pandora for the planned fourth and fifth movies in director James Cameron's sci-fi franchise.
Those fears can be eased somewhat now, thanks to producer Rae Sanchini's comments in a new interview with Inverse.
“Right now we’re figuring out the schedule. We’re working hard on it right now, budgeting, scheduling, planning, building out our new pipeline for them," Sanchini said. "As far as we’re concerned, we’re full speed ahead."
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Previously, Cameron cast potential doubt on Avatar 4. In January, he grimly told Taiwanese outlet, TVBS News, "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, and we need to figure out how to make Avatar movies more inexpensively in order to continue."
In February, the forecast for the fourth Avatar movie improved, telling fans at the Saturn Awards that a follow-up was "very likely" (H/T Screen Rant). He added that he would be taking "audience feedback" into account for future instalments.
Avatar 4 is currently slated for release on December 21, 2029.
But, as ever, Cameron has plenty of other irons in the fire. The director is planning to adapt Charles Pellegrino’s book Ghosts of Hiroshima next, charting naval engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi's unlikely journey between a city devastated by the nuclear bomb and his next destination: Nagasaki.
Additionally, Sanchini revealed in a separate interview with Screen Rant that a Fantastic Voyage remake, described as a "dream project" is also all systems go.
"[Fantastic Voyage has] been long in the works and we are moving forward and can't announce anything, but we are in the works coming up in very early stages. That's been kind of a dream project of ours for some time," Sanchini said.
For more, check out the movie release dates still to come in 2026, plus our ranking of the best sci-fi movies ever made.
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