James Cameron Says Michelle Yeoh Is Not In ‘Avatar 3: Fire & Ash’: “She’s In 4 & 5”
Michelle Yeoh will not be appearing in Avatar: Fire and Ash, according to director James Cameron.
Many expected Yeoh to join the Avatar franchise in its third installment, set to open in theaters on December 19, 2025. However, Cameron is revealing that the Oscar-winner will appear until the fourth installment.
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“Michelle Yeoh won’t be in 3. She’s in 4 and 5,” Cameron told EW. “So that got a little bit misreported. She will be coming in soon to do her part, which is an interesting, fun character.”
He continued, “I mean, we’re getting ahead of ourselves now. This whole thing has been planned for years and years. The scripts were all written years ago, through the end of movie 5. So we’ve been working on parts of 4 even as we go along, mostly because we’ve got this young cast. We had to shoot them all while they were still young.”
It was in 2019 when Disney announced Yeoh would be playing the role of Dr. Karina Mogue.
“We love Michelle,” the filmmaker said. “She was always a movie star, but she’s blown up into a huge, huge phenomenon. I look forward to working there.”
The yet untitled Avatar 4 is set to open on December 21, 2029 with Avatar 5 scheduled for December 19, 2031.
On the next Avatar installment, Cameron revealed at D23, “The characters are so alive, and it feels so real. It’s also got very high emotional stakes — more than ever before. We’re going into really challenging territory for all the characters you know and love. The new film is not what you expect, but it’s definitely what you want.”
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