Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh is still ready to join the The Avatar franchise, it won’t be as soon as fans were initially led to believe. James Cameron recently spoke about which film will feature Yeoh’s franchise debut.
In 2019, it was announced that Yeoh had joined the The Avatar franchise as Dr. Karina Mogue, with the character set to debut in Avatar 3now officially titled Avatar: Fire and AshHowever, while speaking to Entertainment Weekly at D23, Cameron revealed that Yeoh will not appear in the franchise until Avatar 4. “Michelle Yeoh will not be present 3She's inside 4 AND 5“ Cameron shared. “So the news has been a bit distorted. He'll be coming in soon to do his part, which is an interesting and fun character. I mean, we're getting ahead of ourselves. This whole thing has been planned for years and years. The scripts were all written years ago, right up until the end of the movie. 5. So we worked on some parts of 4 even as we go along, especially because we have this young cast. We had to film them all while they were still young.”

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When Yeoh was cast, she had not yet started production. Everything, everywhere, all at oncethe 2022 film that earned her the Oscar for Best Actress at the 95th Academy Awards. The sci-fi film dramatically increased Yeoh's star power, with the actress appearing in several high-profile films, such as An Infestation in Venice AND Transformers: Rise of the BeastsIt also has the two-part adaptation of Evil in post-production, as well as the The History of Star Trek movie, Section 31who she plays as Captain Philippa Georgiou. “We love Michelle,” Cameron added. “She's always been a movie star, but she's become this huge, huge phenomenon. I can't wait to work there.”
Michelle Yeoh has already filmed part of her role in Avatar 4
EW noted that Yeoh has already filmed part of her role in Avatar 4pointing to a 2022 interview in which the actress said she had been “shooting for a few weeks” in 2021. “He's a genius; he's a walking genius,” she said at the time. “And I really enjoyed the experience, and I look forward to going back soon, hopefully.” Since Avatar: The Way of Water, Avatar: Fire and Ashand the first act of Avatar 4 were all filmed consecutively, it is possible that Yeoh's franchise debut was misreported due to the close proximity in which all three films were filmed.

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James Cameron has committed to direct all five Avatar films
Avatar: Fire and Ash will be followed by the untitled Avatar 4 AND Avatar 5which should conclude the franchise (at least for now). While Cameron has previously spoken about a possible handover of directorial duties to another filmmaker, he recently confirmed that Disney “should stop me” from directing Avatar 4 AND 5“I have a lot of energy, I love what I do. Why wouldn't I? And they're written, by the way. I just reread them both about a month ago. They're great stories. They need to be done,” he said. “Look, if I get hit by a bus and I'm in an iron lung, someone else will.”
Avatar 4 is scheduled to hit theaters on December 21, 2029, followed by Avatar 5 December 19, 2031.
Source: Entertainment Weekly

The Avatar
Avatar is an American media franchise created by James Cameron, comprising a planned series of epic science fiction films produced by Lightstorm Entertainment and distributed by 20th Century Studios, as well as merchandise, video games, and theme park attractions.
- Created by
- 1960-1969, James Cameron, 1969-1970, 1969-1971, 1969-1972, 1969-1973, 1969-1974, 1969-1975, 1969-1976, 1969-1977, 1969-1978 , 19
- Launch
- Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, CCH Pounder