Michelle Yeoh Won’t Appear in Avatar 3, James Cameron Teases Debut in 4

Michelle Yeoh will not appear in Avatar 3. Per James Cameron, Yeoh’s character will not make her debut until Avatar 4.

Why isn’t Michelle Yeoh in Avatar 3?

At D23, Cameron spoke with EW about Avatar 3, now officially titled Avatar: Fire and Ash. Cameron confirmed Yeoh’s involvement in the franchise’s fourth and fifth films. Yet, the Wicked actress is not in Avatar 3.

“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. 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.”

In 2019, Yeoh boarded the Avatar sequels in the key role of Dr. Karina Mogue. In an Instagram photo from the late Jon Landau, Yeoh and Cameron posed “between set-ups while filming Avatar 3.” While Yeoh’s Avatar debut is still years away, Cameron looks forward to working with the Oscar-winning actress.

“We love Michelle,” Cameron added. “She was always a movie star, but she’s blown up into a huge, huge phenomenon. I look forward to working there.”

The third film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, opens in theaters on December 19, 2025. The film was shot back-to-back with Avatar: The Way of Water.

Avatar 4 lands in theaters four years later on December 21, 2029. Finally, Avatar 5 bows theatrically on December 19, 2031.

(Source: EW)

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