Avatar: The Way of Water exceeded expectations to become one of the highest-grossing movies ever when it was released in December 2022. The sci-fi epic sealed director James Cameron’s fate in bringing the rest of his vision to the big screen. And as Cameron knows — there is no fate but what we make for ourselves. One of the fates that Cameron is rumored to be making is a nine-hour cut of Avatar 3. The massive, massive narrative would be broken down into a limited series and released on Disney+, according to MovieWeb.
Cameron boldly filmed both The Way of Water and its follow-up back-to-back, and the third movie is said to now be in its huge post-production process. Avatar 3 is still intended to be released theatrically with all the bells and whistles on December 19, 2025. However, this would likely be a more manageable runtime at a mere three hours. It was reported that last year Cameron submitted a nine-hour cut to 20th Century Studios, and he is planning on doing the visual effects for the entire thing, then whittling it down for its feature presentation in theaters.
If the report is true, Cameron is seeing to it that all that work will not go to waste by releasing the whole thing as a limited series following the theatrical run. After the release of Avatar: The Way of Water and its runtime exceeding that of the first, it has been sort of a running joke online that the further sequels would sport unimaginable lengths. Even with Cameron’s reputation for going big and never going home, a rumor of a completed nine-hour cut still comes as a shock. Since the sci-fi auteur is planning to release at least five sequels in total, it’s a relief that he isn’t planning on releasing the nine-hour cut theatrically in parts, especially given Cameron’s aversion to streaming.
For Avatar 3, Cameron has said that he will be exploring another part of Pandora which will feature a tribe of evil Na’vi called the fire people, a.k.a. the ash people. Actress Oona Chaplin had been cast to play the leader of the tribe. Then, it was announced that one of the sequels would see Neytiri finding herself visiting Earth. However, Cameron has also said that he is wanting to squeeze in a pet project about Hiroshima before continuing to Avatar 4.