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Sigourney Weaver 'In Denial' About Avatar Potentially Coming to an End With Fire and Ash Following James Cameron Comments, Says if Fans Go to See It More Than Once Avatar 4 Will Happen
Last month, Avatar writer and director James Cameron set the cat among the pigeons when he revealed he was ready to walk away from the franchise if Avatar: Fire and Ash doesn’t make enough profit to convince Disney to bankroll Avatar 4 and 5.
The special effects-heavy Avatar films cost a huge amount of money to produce, but they have historically made billions of dollars at the box office. Avatar: Fire and Ash, due out in December, is expected to follow suit — and the pressure is on to deliver for Disney so Cameron can realize his vision and release Avatar 4 and 5 over the next six years.
Speaking on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast, Cameron admitted he was feeling nervous about Avatar: Fire and Ash’s box office performance, and was mindful of the “forces” working against theatrical releases in 2025.
There’s the potential for “sequelitis,” Cameron noted. "People tend to dismiss sequels unless it’s the third Lord of the Rings film and you want to see what happens to everybody, which in my mind this is — this is the culmination of a story arc, but that may not be how the public sees it.”
And there’s the “one-two punch” of streaming and Covid, which means fewer people are going to the movies — 75% of the number in 2019, Cameron suggested.
When pressed on how much Avatar: Fire and Ash cost to make, Cameron wouldn’t be drawn into divulging a figure, only suggesting it was a lot of money, and so the movie will have to make a lot of money to turn a profit.
“It is one metric f**k ton of money, which means we have to make two metric f**k tons of money to make a profit,” he said. “I have no doubt in my mind that this movie will make money. The question is, does it make enough money to justify doing it again?”
And on that point, Cameron admitted he was “absolutely” ready to walk away from Avatar if Fire and Ash flops.
“I’ve been in Avatar land for 20 years,” he said. “Actually 30 years because I wrote it in ‘95, but I wasn’t working continuously on it for those first 10 years. Yeah, absolutely, sure. If this is where it ends, cool.”
But what about open story threads?
“There’s one open thread. I’ll write a book!” Cameron responded.
Now, in an interview with IGN, Avatar star Sigourney Weaver refused to answer questions around how she would feel about the franchise if it were to come to an end, following Cameron’s comments. That’s because, she said, she’s “in denial.”
“I'm not going to answer that question because I'm in denial,” Weaver, who plays Kiri, said. “And also, if everybody really goes to see the movie and especially maybe goes back again because they can't believe what they saw the first time, which is what I was, we will get to make it.”
It was at this point that Weaver dropped a potential spoiler for Avatar 3 and, assuming it happens, Avatar 4.
Warning! Potential Avatar: Fire and Ash and Avatar 4 spoilers follow:
In our interview, Weaver said she’s desperate to continue making Avatar movies because her character, Kiri, is meant to be the narrator of Avatar 4. “So, Kiri is the narrator of the next one,” she revealed. “So, I really have to make those movies.”
Kiri is the adopted teenage Na'vi daughter of Jake and Neytiri Sully in the Avatar films. She is the biological daughter of Dr. Grace Augustine's avatar body, which became pregnant after Grace's death. Kiri has a unique and powerful connection to Eywa, the life force of Pandora, with abilities that go far beyond those of any other Na'vi. As Cameron has already confirmed, the narrator of Fire and Ash is Lo’ak, Jake and Neytiri's second son, and the plan is to have a different narrator for each of the sequels. Now we know who that will be in Avatar 4.
Avatar 4 is down for release on December 21, 2029, with Avatar 5 due out December 19, 2031. Cameron, now 71, would be close to 80 years old by the time it all wraps up.
Avatar remains the highest-grossing movie of all time (not adjusted for inflation), and has earned a staggering $2.9 billion across several theatrical runs. (Avengers: Endgame overtook Avatar for a brief period, before Avatar then stole its crown back via a fresh re-release.) 2022 sequel Avatar: The Way of Water earned $2.3 billion, meanwhile, cementing it as the third-highest grossing film of all time — just ahead of Cameron's own Titanic, which floats on $2.2 billion.
Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for 20th Century Studios..
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
