Michelle YeohAudrey Hepburn’s trip to Pandora is happening later than expected.
“Avatar” filmmaker James Cameron has revealed that Yeoh’s character, scientist Dr. Karina Mogue, will not appear in the upcoming third installment, officially titled “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
“Michelle Yeoh is not going to be in 3. She’s in 4 and 5,” Cameron said. Entertainment Weekly at Disney’s D23 convention. “So that was a little bit misreported.”
In 2021, the deceased Producer Jon Landau posted a photo of Yeoh on the set of the third “Avatar” film, suggesting that Yeoh would appear in that entry. (Cameron filmed “Fire and Ash” and parts of “Avatar 4” simultaneously with “Avatar: The Way of Water.”)
“She’s coming on soon to do her part, which is an interesting and fun character,” Cameron explained to EW. “I mean, we’re getting ahead of ourselves now. This has all been planned for years and years. The scripts were written years ago, all the way up to the end of Movie 5. So we’ve been working on parts of Movie 4 even as we go, mainly because we have this young cast. We had to film them all while they were still young.”
“We love Michelle,” the director added. “She was always a movie star, but she has become a huge phenomenon. I am looking forward to working there.”
At the D23 expo on August 9, Cameron and “Avatar” stars Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington revealed the official title for the third installment of “Avatar,” as well as showing some artistic concepts from the film.
“You’ll see a lot more of Pandora than ever before,” Cameron told the audience. “It’s a crazy adventure and a joy to behold, but it also involves a lot more than ever before.”
The third installment is scheduled to hit theaters on December 19, 2025, followed by “Avatar 4” on December 21, 2029, and “Avatar 5” on December 19, 2031.