James Cameron gives big update about 'Avatar: Fire and Ash'

James Cameron's Avatar franchise is known for its long runtime, and the upcoming part, Avatar: Fire and Ash, he said it will be a little bit longer.

The Academy Award director explained why, saying his team had produced too much material for 2022's The Way of Water.

He said they had decided to fit the extra content into Fire and Ash, which will make its runtime longer than the second installment, which clocked in at three hours and 12 minutes.

“In a nutshell, we had too many great ideas packed into act one of movie 2,” the Avatar director added. 

“The [film] was moving like a bullet train, and we weren’t drilling down enough on character. So I said, ‘Guys, we’ve got to split it.’” adding, “Movie 3 will actually be a little bit longer than movie 2.”

James first shared the title of Fire and Ash at D23 in August 2024. “You’ll see a lot more Pandora that you never saw before,” he said at the time. 

“It’s an insane adventure and a feast for the eyes, but it’s also got very high emotional stakes, more than ever before."

"We’re going into really challenging territory for all the characters you know and love," James concluded.

Avatar: Fire and Ash will hit theatres on Dec 19.