Avatar: Fire and Ash star has seen footage, says it's "extraordinary" and "amazing"

Fun fact: the first Avatar movie is the highest-grossing film at all time, with nearly three billion dollars made at the box office. Its sequel, 2022's Avatar: The Way of Water, is the third highest-grossing film of all time with a haul of over $2.3 billion. And Disney has three more of these suckers planned. The third movie, Avatar: Fire and Ash, due out next year. Can it live up to the standards set by the first two. It will have to be spectacular.

The early signs are good. Actor Giovanni Ribisi, who played the greedy RDA administrator Parker Selfridge in the first two movies, has seen footage of the third (the public has yet to see anything) and he's full of praise. "So, we just did some pickups [for 'Avatar: Fire and Ash'] two months ago in New Zealand, and I saw a little bit of it, and it's just extraordinary," he told The Direct. "I can't say enough about it. It's going to be amazing."

The fact that Rabisi is this deeply involved is interesting in and of itself. Parker Selfridge played a decently-sized role in the first movie, when he was the head of the Avatar program and willing to cross moral lines in order to mine valuable unobtanium from the moon of Pandora. He was sent packing back to Earth at the end of that movie and was only seen in a video message in the second. But apparently he has a big enough role in the third movie to be doing pick-up shots.

Like I said, director James Cameron has a five-movie plan here, so I guess he'll need an ensemble cast to fill out the time. Avatar: Fire and Ash comes out out in theaters on December 19, 2025.

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