Michelle Yeoh, celebrated for her recent Oscar win for Everything Everywhere All at Once, continues to capture the Hollywood spotlight. Her upcoming projects include Wicked, Star Trek: Section 31, and Blade Runner 2099. However, fans eagerly anticipating her role in James Cameron’s Avatar franchise might have to wait a bit longer.
Debut Delayed Until Fourth Film
Cameron recently confirmed that Yeoh’s character, Dr. Karina Mogue, won’t be appearing in the third installment of the saga, titled Avatar: Fire and Ash. Instead, her debut is scheduled for the fourth film, set to release in 2029. This was a clarification by Cameron following some earlier misreporting.
A Decade in the Making
Addressing the adjustments during the D23 convention, Cameron explained: 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 five. So we’ve been working on parts of four even as we go along, mostly because we’ve got this young cast. We had to shoot them all while they were still young.
Sneak Peek at the Process
The filming of parts two and three was done back-to-back with sections of the fourth movie as well. From a widely circulated photo of Yeoh on set with Cameron, it’s evident they’ve been intricately planning these sequels to manage the portrayal continuity of younger characters.
This strategic decision aligns with comments from actors describing their experiences on set. As Trinity Lo-Bliss shared: Well, we filmed in performance capture. Jack as a human had to do everything twice and went to New Zealand. Filming in performance capture was a lot like typical acting.
An Anticipated Arrival
While it’ll be a few more years until audiences see Yeoh’s impact on Pandora’s universe, Cameron assures that it’ll be worth the wait: We love Michelle… She was always a movie star but she’s blown up into a huge, huge phenomenon.
The highly anticipated Avatar: Fire and Ash is scheduled to open on December 19, 2025.
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