James Cameron: 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' provides satisfying completion to saga

James Cameron wrote the story for "Avatar" in 1995, expanding upon the vision of an alien planet he first dreamt of as a 19-year-old. The director then waited for over a decade until filmmaking technology caught up with his ambition, pioneering new performance-capture and virtual production techniques to finally visualize Pandora. The resulting 2009 film grossed over $2.92 billion to become the world's highest-grossing film of all time, ushering in a new era of 3D and premium theatrical experiences.

Now the saga of Marine-turned-Na'vi leader Jake Sully, his wife, the warrior Neytiri, and their family has finally come to an end with a heavily emotional story featuring one of the most spectacular visual feasts in cinema history. "Avatar: Fire and Ash," which released on Dec. 19, is the "culmination" of the saga, as Cameron called it, rather than a sequel.

A still from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." [Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios]

"I don't love the term 'sequel,'" Cameron told China.org.cn, saying he is "very satisfied" with the film. "I see the new film as the completion of a saga, the completion of a story arc. 'Avatar 2' and 'Avatar 3' are the completion of the story of Jake and Neytiri, and the two films are one story. But as I was writing it, it just got bigger and bigger and I had a lot of good ideas. And so I decided to split it apart into two stories and restructure it."

After the original film's juggernaut success in 2009, Cameron turned his attention to deep ocean expeditions, figuring out how to visit the deepest place on the planet. At the time, he had completely stepped away from Hollywood, even making a documentary about his expedition.

"It's important to note that I didn't necessarily want to make the sequels right away," he said. "It didn't seem like a great idea. You do the highest-grossing film in history; it's like, who wants to try to climb that mountain? What brought me back was the opportunity to work with this amazing cast of people that I love, and some of our technical people — what we call the 'Avatar family.' That group of people that you work with, you respect them, they respect you, we trust each other. All of that's what drew me back. Not the money, not the fame."

Then they spent five years, a lot of time, and a lot of money in R&D to develop superior performance-capture technology and set a much higher bar, aiming for perfect fidelity to capture even an actor's most subtle, internal performance. When the technology was mature, they started the capture process in 2017, filming the second and third movies simultaneously.

In 2022, "Avatar: The Way of Water" eventually hit screens worldwide, captivating moviegoers once again and taking more than $2.3 billion at the box office worldwide to become the third highest-grossing film of all time, and winning an Oscar for best visual effects. 

Cameron knew that the challenge was maintaining audience interest between films, separated by three years, while presenting one continuous story. The draw must be the promise of something new: imaginative creatures and landscapes, alongside placing beloved characters in greater physical and, crucially, psychological jeopardy. 

In the latest chapter of the sci-fi epic, he focused on the family's honest, traumatic grief over losing their eldest son Neteyam, a risk that changes Neytiri in a dark way. "I'm taking our most popular character and making her really unlikable. My gamble is the people innately love her and want to see the best for her and they'll go on her journey. I do the same thing with some of the other characters," he explained.

James Cameron poses in front of a giant "Avatar: Fire and Ash" logo at the film's China premiere in Sanya, Hainan province, Dec. 8, 2025. [Photo courtesy of The Walt Disney Company]

Notably regarding the film's antagonist Colonel Quaritch, Cameron mentioned that the villain evolved across the films, becoming a more complex figure in the third installment. "Everything is a little bit more nuanced in this film. All Na'vi are not good and virtuous. You've got the Ash people, right? All humans are not bad invaders, ruthless and greedy. Then you've got Spider, you've got Dr. Ian Garvin, the marine biologist who stands up courageously for what he believes in. I think we deliver on all the things: new creatures, new environments, new cultures. But we start to play with the characters a lot more than we have in the past."

Cameron described the third film as a test for every character, as the bonds between the Sully family members get torn apart. Cameron's goal was to make the audience care deeply about how the characters, such as a hate-consumed Neytiri and the caught-in-the-middle Spider, would navigate and resolve these intense conflicts.

He pointed out, "I think at the film's heart, there's a hope that we can see better, that we can learn to see better, that we can evolve to be better, because otherwise we've got a lot of threats in this world right now. I don't think the movie offers easy, simple answers, but I think it delves into the complexity of our human nature."

A still from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." [Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios]

Though he expressed he might use the stunningly beautiful photography of Hainan island to inspire some future "Avatar" film sets when he attended the China premiere there, he added that they need to have "a little reality check here" before actually going on to make "Avatar 4" and "Avatar 5." It is reported that part of the filming and performance capture for these potential films has already been done.

"These movies cost a lot of money, which means they have to make a lot of money," the filmmaker said. "So they have to succeed at the top level of performance. And if this film doesn't do that, it probably stops here, which is OK. In some ways, I'd love to continue, but it's OK because we finish our story. If we go beyond this, we have to start a new story. Now I know what that story is, but it's a different story."

"Avatar: Fire and Ash" took in 405 million yuan ($57.6 million) in China and amassed $347 million globally over the last weekend. This makes it the second-best global opening of any 2025 Hollywood title behind a fellow Disney production, "Zootopia 2."