James Cameron’s Shocking Promise If Avatar 4 and 5 Aren’t Made!

Indeed, by the evening of December 28, “Avatar – Of Fire and Ashes” was only the third biggest box office hit of 2025 in France (following “Zootopia 2” and the live-action remake of “Lilo & Stitch”) and ranked tenth in the United States. It had not yet surpassed the one billion dollar mark in global earnings.

So, it’s not a crisis on Pandora, although it’s clear that this new chapter in James Cameron’s science fiction saga won’t perform as well as its predecessors (which each grossed over 2 billion dollars globally and drew more than 14 million viewers in France). This symbolizes a challenging year for cinema in which even established franchises struggled more than expected, a sentiment Marvel Studios would likely echo.

These figures have understandably worried some fans. Officially, “Avatar 4” is scheduled for a December 19, 2029 release in France, indicating that James Cameron should start filming in the coming months to stay on schedule with the extensive post-production each film requires. However, the filmmaker has hinted that the story of Jake and Neytiri might end here if audience turnout is lackluster, even though Cameron has not set a specific threshold to decide whether to proceed with further sequels.

Uncertain Future for “Avatar” Sequels

What’s certain amid this uncertainty is that Cameron won’t abandon those willing to follow the heroes and their adversaries to the end of their journey: “I don’t know yet if the saga will continue,” he confessed to Entertainment Weekly. “I hope it does, but we face this profitability question with every release. If we don’t make ‘Avatar 4’ and ‘5’ for whatever reason, I will hold a press conference to reveal what we had planned. How does that sound?”

Press Conference Promised If No More Films

Cameron also hasn’t ruled out the possibility of publishing the untold stories as novels: “There’s so much culture, history, and character detail that’s already been developed. I’d love to do something on that level, but there’s no longer a business model for it, as people don’t read as much [according to a study by the University of Florida and University College London, which found that the number of Americans who read for pleasure has dropped by 40% over the past twenty years]. However, it would be nice to have a canonical record of what was supposed to happen.”

A Sequel in Film or in Book?

While he has only filmed a few scenes of “Avatar 4” with the children, before a planned eight-year time jump between “Of Fire and Ashes” and its successor, James Cameron promises that we will learn the ultimate fate of Jake and Neytiri. The question now is when and in what form.

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