How Much of ‘Avatar 3’ Is Filmed?

In June, Avatar fans learned that while they’ll get the chance to return to Pandora with Avatar 3, the wait will be longer than anticipated. Initially, the film was set to release in 2024, with two additional films slated for 2026 and 2028. Now, everything has been pushed back. Avatar 3 will be released in December 2025, and the other films won’t see the big screen until 2028 and 2031, respectively. So, what is the big hold-up? Filming isn’t the issue; most of Avatar 3 has already been filmed. 

How much of ‘Avatar 3’ is already filmed? 

Avatar 3 won’t be in theatres until December 2025, but the project is almost complete. At the very least, filming for the movie is just about done. In December 2022, producer Jon Landau sat down with Collider to discuss the series. He revealed that 95% of the third flick had already been filmed. By now, the final 5% has been captured, too. 

Avatar 3 isn’t the only project in the franchise that is making significant progress. Landau told the publication that the first act of Avatar 4 had already been filmed, too. While he didn’t mention Avatar 5, we know that the final installment script is already completed, at the very least.  

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Most of ‘Avatar 3’ was filmed before the SAG-AFTRA strike 

News of the pushed-back release date for Avatar 3 felt awfully coincidental to fans. News of the changed premiere date came out around the time Hollywood shut down. The Writers Guild of America went on strike in May 2023. SAG-AFTRA followed in July. While it would be easy to assume the changed release dates are related to the strikes, that doesn’t appear to be the case. 

Writing for all future Avatar projects was completed long ago. In fact, the scripts for the fourth and fifth installments of the series were completed before filming for Avatar 3 was completed. Almost all of the filming for Avatar 3 was completed long before the strikes were even in the works, too. 

So why is the film delayed? 

If the strikes haven’t caused trouble for Avatar 3, why exactly was the release date pushed back by a full year? While the announcement didn’t explain the issue, there could be a couple of explanations. According to Reuters, Jon Landau explained that the filmmakers simply needed more time in a post on Twitter. 

Many people believe that the hold-up is related to the editing that needs to be done on the film and the special effects that need to be added. Because of the extremely vivid and complex world created in Avatar, a lot of work has to be done in post-production. It is understandable that a team would need additional time to ensure the project is ready for the big screen.