It's Official, Avatar 4 Will Be The End Of An Era

While Avatar 4 is still a long way away, the news that it will fundamentally alter the storyline of the Avatar franchise as a whole is good for its future. Despite stiff competition from the likes of the sprawling MCU and the ever-expanding Star Wars franchise, the Avatar franchise might be the most ambitious movie series ever made. Unlike these earlier examples, James Cameron’s space odyssey had a multi-decade release schedule planned from the start.

Even though Avatar: Fire & Ash was the lowest-grossing movie in the franchise so far, its staggering $1.490 billion box office payday means that the franchise’s release schedule isn’t in any danger of changing anytime soon. Currently, Avatar 4’s release date is planned for December 21, 2029, with the movie following on from the ending of Avatar: Fire & Ash in its first act before radically expanding the world of the series after that.

Cameron confirmed that Avatar 4 will feature a time jump of “About eight years,” which almost certainly means that the franchise will also change its main character, too. Since 2009’s original blockbuster Avatar, Sam Worthington’s once-human avatar, Jake Sully, has been the franchise’s protagonist and its narrator. Avatar 4 will see Sigourney Weaver’s Kiri take on the narrator role, which means Jake’s long-foreshadowed death may be the catalyst for the franchise’s time jump.

Avatar 4’s Time Jump Will Change The Franchise’s Main Characters

There have been theories about when the Avatar franchise will kill off Jake Sully since 2009’s original movie, since transitioning to a new protagonist perfectly fits the broader themes of the franchise. Jake talks at length about the importance of community, family, and working together instead of focusing on oneself, and the Na’vi’s willingness to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their collective good is constantly contrasted with the greed, malevolence, and self-interest of the human villains.

As such, it would be thematically fitting for Jake to die in battle, allowing his children to take his place. Both Jake’s son, Lo’ak, and his adopted son, Spider, played major roles in the story of Avatar: Fire & Ash, but it is Kiri who would be the most fitting replacement for the franchise’s original narrator. However, regardless of how Avatar 4 handles narration duties, the time jump represents a broader shift in terms of the franchise’s perspective.

The opening scenes of Avatar: Way of the Water jumped ahead years after the ending of Avatar, fast-tracking the childhood of Jake’s children and his relationship with Neytiri as new parents. Viewers were dropped back into the immersive world of Pandora and, almost as soon as the original movie’s main characters were reintroduced, they were suddenly a decade and a half older and in the midst of a completely new life stage.

The Avatar Franchise Is Ready For A Major Change

This was no bad choice, as wasting screen time on the childhoods of each character or the tribulations of parenting Na’Vi could have made Avatar: Way of the Water a dull slog. The problem is that, since Avatar: Way of the Water’s opening scene, the franchise has not been able to jump ahead again.

It was initially endearing to follow the teenage exploits of Lo’ak, Kiri, and Spider in Avatar: Way of the Water, but Avatar: Fire & Ash’s teen plot felt repetitive. Thus, it is great that Avatar 4’s time jump will now allow these overly familiar teen characters to become young adults.

This will necessarily thrust them into an entirely new life stage. This welcome change means that viewers will get to explore new sides of the franchise’s emerging second generation of protagonists, while the shift also allows Avatar 4 to subtly retire Avatar’s original protagonist after three movies in the spotlight.