Avatar took the world by storm when it was released in late 2009, earring primarily positive critical reception and becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time, a record is still holds thanks to re-releases, though Avengers: Endgame did hold the #1 spot for a time. And while audiences ended up waiting more than a decade for the follow-up, Avatar: The Way of Water was also quite the commercial success, as evidenced by it currently ranking as the third highest-grossing movie. While there are three more Avatar movies to look forward to, a recent calendar shakeup has resulted in Avatar 5 not arriving until 2031, and Zoe Saldaña has a hilarious reaction to this.
Various upcoming Disney movies had their release dates shuffled, including Deadpool 3, the next two Avengers movies and the next three Avatar sequels. Avatar 3 has been moved to December 19, 2025, followed by Avatar 4 shifting to December 21, 2029 and Avatar 5 now capping things off on December 21, 2031. That’s three years later that its previous release date, and 22 years after the first Avatar movie. So you can’t blame Saldaña for noting in her Instagram Stories how old she’ll be when Avatar 5 is released.
Zoe Saldaña was still a few years away from hitting 30 when she started working on Avatar, and prior to the movie coming out, she was best known for playing Anamaria in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Nyota Uhurua in Star Trek, reprising the latter role in two more movies. Assuming that Avatar 5 isn’t delayed further, the actress, who’s now also well known for playing Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will be in her early 50s when all is said and done. That’s assuming, of course, that the Avatar film series will indeed conclude with the fifth installment, which isn’t even a guarantee since James Cameron has been thinking about Avatar 6 and 7.
Speaking of Cameron, the mastermind behind the Avatar mythology, he’ll be 77 when Avatar 5 comes out, while Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña’s main costar in these movies, will be 55. While learning what movies are coming out in a few years is par for the course, but thinking about something hitting the big screen in the early 2030s just feel weird. And I cannot stress this enough, it’s entirely possible that Avatar 5 could be pushed back again someday, in which case Saldaña may find herself taking note again of what age she’ll be at that new date.
As far as her actual work on the Avatar film series goes, filming on Avatar 3 reportedly wrapped back in December 2020, and Avatar 4 began production in September 2022. So she’ll be sticking around this franchise for a while, but audiences will have to wait more than half a decade to see scenes she’s currently shooting. Although specific details concerning Avatar 4 and 5 are few and far between, there is a fair amount we know about Avatar 3, including that the Ash People will be introduced, and a major relationship (and grudge) will continue being explored.
Meanwhile, Avatar: The Way of Water is now available for Disney+ subscribers to stream alongside its predecessor, and we here at CinemaBlend will continue sharing updates on how the next three entries are coming along. Zoe Saldaña can still be seen in theaters playing Gamora one last time in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
