James Cameron Drops A Big Avatar 4 Detail - 6 Years Before Its Release

James Cameron is teasing "Avatar 4" six years before it's scheduled to hit cinemas.

After more than a decade, Cameron debuted the long-gestating sequel to 2009's "Avatar," subtitled "The Way of Water," late last year. The film, which took audiences to the oceans of Pandora, proved to be both a critical and commercial success, grossing over $2 billion worldwide. Now, the Oscar-winning creative is hard at work cooking up the rest of the films in the franchise. While Cameron is currently busy working on the untitled "Avatar 3," he's already concerned with "Avatar 4" — which is supposed to hit cinemas in December 2029. 

The maverick filmmaker recently spoke with People to discuss the franchise's trajectory and, in doing so, dropped a major plot detail for the fourth "Avatar." The director says that a portion of "Avatar 4" was shot concurrently with "Avatar 2" and the upcoming third film. "We did the capture on three and the live-action photography on three as an intermingled production with [Avatar: The Way of Water], and we even did part of movie four because our young characters are all going to have a big time jump in movie four," Cameron said.

That last detail about the significant time jump is especially interesting. "The Way of Water" introduced several new young characters, including the children of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). Not one to be coy, Cameron expanded on just how the time jump will operate, saying, "We see them and then we go away for six years and we come back." Cameron continued by explaining that he hasn't shot the portion "where we come back," revealing that he'll start work on it after "Avatar 3" releases in 2025. 

Plot details on "Avatar 4," let alone "Avatar 3," are slim. The last time we saw the Sully clan was in "The Way of Water," when Jake and Neytiri lay their eldest child, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), to rest. James Cameron has previously stated that the "Avatar" films will operate like a family saga, likening his sci-fi epics to the "Godfather" films, which follow multiple generations. In "The Way of Water," Cameron puts considerable emphasis on the second generation of Sullys, setting up Lo'Ak (Britain Dalton), Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), and others as the future protagonists of the franchise. 

Based on that, it makes sense that Cameron would want to eventually show the younger characters as adults. While it may seem out of left field for "Avatar 4" to have a significant time jump of six years, that's far shorter than the gap between the first "Avatar" and "The Way of Water," which is about 15 years. Seeing as Cameron says that "The Way of Water," "Avatar 3," and bits of "Avatar 4" were all sort of shot together, it's likely that the upcoming threequel takes place directly after "The Way of Water." 

At this time, it's anyone's guess what "Avatar 4" will be about, as details are already minimal for the upcoming threequel. With a time jump confirmed, we obviously know that younger characters like Lo'Ak will (hopefully) be seen as adults, though it remains to be seen what exactly happens narratively to warrant a six-year gap.