James Cameron Says AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH Will Address Grief in a Way That "Hollywood Doesn't Do Well"

Director James Cameron may have taken over a decade to return to his Avatar franchise after the first film was released, but now that the second film has been released, and brought back the audience he anticipated, he isn’t wasting any time to get the next three films up on the big screen.

Film number three, titled Avatar: Fire and Ash, is scheduled to hit theaters at the end of this year, and Cameron says that after the first two movies, which laid the groundwork in the world of Pandora, this next film will address grief in a way that is unprecedented in Hollywood.

In the upcoming edition of Empire Magazine (via Collider), Cameron talked about the quote which we hear in the voiceover for the film, which states, "The fire of hate gives way to the ash of grief." He said of that statement:

“I think what commercial Hollywood doesn't do well is deal with grief the way human beings really deal with it. You know, characters get killed off, and then in the next movie everybody's happy again.

“I've lost a lot of people, friends and family members, over the last six or eight years, and it doesn't work that way."

He goes on to also explain that grief wouldn't result in a family being vengeful and deciding to "gun up and kill," adding:

"It also doesn't make you so mad that you're going to become an army of one and gun up and kill all those m***********s, which is another Hollywood trope.

“It makes you just kind of depressed and f****d up. I'm not saying our movie's depressed and f****d up, I'm just saying that I think we deal with that part of life quite honestly. The [Sullys] journey continues in a very naturalistic, novelistic way.

“I've sort of thought of this next cycle, meaning 3, 4 and 5, as how they continue to process the things that happen to them. Now, of course, they're not human, but this is a movie for us, by us, right? Science-fiction is always just a big mirror of the human condition."

The upcoming film stars Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement, and Kate Winslet.

Avatar: Fire and Ash will hit theaters on December 19, 2025.