Judging by the actions of James Cameron’s wife, Avatar: Fire and Ash will be the filmmaker’s most emotional story on Pandora.
Cameron’s wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, managed to see a cut of Avatar: Fire and Ash, the upcoming third entry in the Avatar franchise. According to Cameron, the emotionality of Fire and Ash brought her to tears.
“My wife watched the whole thing from end to end. She had kept herself away from it, and I wasn’t showing her bits and pieces as we went along. This was December 22nd,” Cameron told Empire. “She bawled for four hours.”
Cameron could not even receive proper feedback from her due to the waterworks.
“She kept trying to get her s*** back together so she could tell me specific reactions, and then she’d just tear up and start crying again,” Cameron said. “Finally, I’m like, ‘Honey, I’ve got to go to bed. Sorry, we’ll talk about it some other time.'”
When Cameron’s wife cries during a screening, it’s typically a good sign, as evidenced by her proven track record.
“She’s a pretty good bellwether,” Cameron said. “She called the ball on Titanic and Avatar and Avatar 2. So I trust her heart on it.”
Fire and Ash will be Cameron’s third outing in Pandora, following 2009’s Avatar and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water. Avatar 3 will introduce two new clans: Tlalim and Mangkwan. The Tlalim, also known as Wind Traders, are a friendly clan led by Peylak (David Thewlis). In contrast, the Mangkwan, aka the Ash People, are much more adversarial, posing a threat to Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and the rest of his family.
Cameron directs Fire and Ash from a screenplay he cowrote with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. Cameron recently confirmed that Avatar 3’s runtime is a “little bit longer” than Way of Water’s 192-minute length.
Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19, 2025.
