Is ‘Avatar 3′ Delayed Because of the 2023 Writers’ Strike?

James Cameron’s Avatar changed the way filmgoers experienced movies, and expectations are high for the final installments of his films. Avatar: The Way of Water was a huge success despite being released over a decade after the first film. Cameron hoped for less of a delay with Avatar 3. But the current writers’ strike puts the movie on pause.

Is ‘Avatar 3′ delayed due to the writers’ strike?

Much to the dismay of fans, Avatar 3 has a delayed release date due to the current actors and writers’ strike.

The 2023 Writers Guild of America strike caused many movie disruptions. The Walt Disney Studios must now account for the time lost to the strike. Avatar 3 will experience a year delay, releasing on Dec. 19, 2025.

“Each Avatar film is an exciting but epic undertaking that takes time to bring to the quality level we as filmmakers strive for and audiences have come to expect,” Franchise producer Jon Landau posted to Twitter, according to La Prensa Latina.

While fans won’t see the finished Avatar 3 until nearly 2026, James Cameron revealed he already had most of the movie filmed. And the strike might push him to capture additional footage in the meantime. Additionally, Cameron already captured footage for Avatar 4, as he needed footage of the younger characters. There’s reportedly a significant time jump between Avatar 3 and the later installments.

Cameron spoke to IndieWire about his process of writing Avatar with multiple new films in mind. He stated that he started the screenwriting process in 2013, and the years that followed allowed him to focus on writing the films and “future-proofing” the movies.

“The next few years were parallel processing on writing four films, designing every creature, every character, every vehicle, every cityscape, every biome, every habitat across those four movies,” Cameron said. “That same period of time was also for R&D and tech [development] to really future-proof ourselves across that whole oeuvre of films because I’d rather stop once for a big chunk and get it all ready, and then work with a kind of rhythmic cadence forward from there where we don’t have to stop and retool at each stage of the game.”

No matter the delay, Cameron clearly sees where he wants the Avatar world to go. “We could probably write a book about how we figured all this stuff out, but the key to it is having a vision of what you want it to look like,” he told IndieWire. “That vision comes into focus; it’s not crystal clear.”

When will ‘Avatar 4’ and ‘Avatar 5’ come out?

The delay in the Avatar 3 release also means that Avatar 4 and 5 will also experience a delay. James Cameron initially aimed for Avatar 4 to be released in 2026. But the release will now happen on Dec. 21, 2029. As for Avatar 5, the new release date is Dec. 19, 2031.

Fans won’t like this delay. But it does give them plenty of Avatar to look forward to. Cameron explained his inspiration for making more films in the franchise at a press conference in September 2022.

“I just look back on everybody’s work and just so grateful to have had an opportunity to work with these amazing people,” Cameron said, according to Comic Book Resources. “And I think that’s why I promptly went out and wrote another and another and another Avatar. I just wanted to continue with this family, which is such a great, great experience.”

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