20th Century Studios

"Avatar: Fire and Ash" trailer: James Cameron sets Pandora ablaze in breathtaking first look

By Chris Morgan | Last updated Jul 28, 2025 6:37 PM ET

Few will dare bet against James Cameron when it comes to the success of 2025's "Avatar: Fire and Ash." People were skeptical of the original "Avatar," which became the highest-grossing movie in history. Some didn't even believe "The Way of Water" would come out. It did, and it made a couple billion dollars. You can lock it in that "Avatar: Fire and Ash" will be the highest-grossing movie released this year. That's how "Big Jim" rolls. The first trailer for "Fire and Ash" is now out, and people have been eating it up online.

Back to Pandora we go! Cameron shot "The Way of Water" and "Fire and Ash" back-to-back, so it's been sitting around for a bit. They just needed the right time to strike at the box office. Each time Cameron returns to Pandora, he unveils some other element of this fictional world that moviegoers love to be immersed in. "Fire and Ash" comes out December 19, so it will be the film families go see around Christmas.

Everybody who was in on "The Way of Water" is likely in on "Fire and Ash," but Cameron will likely hope to add some more movie fans into the mix. He wants to make more of these movies, but "Fire and Ash" likely needs to clear $2 billion for that to happen. Now, that is a high bar to clear, but no director working together is as capable of clearing it. Not Steven Spielberg, not Christopher Nolan, nobody.

Chris Morgan

Chris Morgan is a Detroit-based culture writer who has somehow managed to justify getting his BA in Film Studies. He has written about sports and entertainment across various internet platforms for years and is also the author of three books about '90s television.

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