While the first two installments in the Avatar franchise are pretty long (the first Avatar clocks in at 2 hours 42 minutes while the sequel runs for 3 hours 12 minutes), they will be nothing compared to Avatar 3 if the latest rumor is to be believed. According to The Hot Mic with Jeff Sneider and John Rocha, a 9-hour-long cut of Avatar 3 is currently being developed, with the intention to release it as a limited series on Disney+.
The plan is apparently to release the nine-episode series on the streaming platform following the release of the much shorter (but probably still really long) theatrical cut, which is due to land in theaters on 20 December 2024.
This stacks up with something that Sneider has claimed before. The insider revealed at the end of last year that director James Cameron has handed in a 9-hour cut of Avatar 3, and that the filmmaker “[is] insisting on doing the visual effects work for this cut…all nine hours [would] get fully VFX’d” and then the director will “cut it down.”
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So, if his initial report is indeed accurate, it is certainly plausible that Cameron and Disney would not want to waste all that time, effort, and money completing visual effects for them to never see the light of day. Thus, an Avatar 3 Disney+ limited series will be born.
RELATED: Avatar 3 Will Change Narrator from Jake Sully to His Son Lo’ak, James Cameron Reveals
James Cameron Has Teased the Epic Scale of Avatar 3
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Considering that Avatar 3 is being helmed by James Cameron, the idea of the follow-up being nine hours long is of little surprise. The director has already begun teasing the epic scale of the threequel, that will introduce several new tribes of Na’vi to world of Pandora. One such tribe is the Ash People, a fire-based group who will act as the villains of Avatar 3. Producer Jon Landau has even revealed that Game of Thrones and Taboo star Oona Chaplin will portray the leader of this fire nation of Na’vi.
Avatar 3 will also bring a wind-based tribe into the fray, calling them “desert people… that trade, that travel around [Pandora].” Not only that, but Cameron has also revealed that Avatar 3 will roam a lot more freely around the alien planet. “Fire has a symbolic purpose in the film and there’s a culture that is specifically around that concept. That’s probably saying too much as we speak. You’re going to meet two completely new cultures in the next film,” he explained. “We met the Omaticaya, we met the Metkayina, and you’re going to meet two new cultures in the next film, and it kind of roves a little more freely around the world of Pandora to different places.”
With such big plans in place for Avatar 3, it’s difficult not to ask…is nine hours even going to be enough?
The recent box office dominating sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, begins to the story of the Sully family, the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure. Avatar: The Way of Water is due for digital download on March 28, 2023, with three more sequels scheduled. Avatar 3 is currently due for release on December 20, 2024, with further installments scheduled for December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028.
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