‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ will reportedly include anti-AI disclaimer

24 February, 2025

Avatar franchise creator and director James Cameron has reportedly confirmed that Fire And Ash will include an anti-AI disclaimer – find out more below.

Avatar: Fire And Ash – the title for the third film in the franchise was announced last August – is set for release on December 19, following 2009’s Avatar and sequel Avatar: The Way Of Water, which was released in 2022.

Over the weekend, Cameron attended a Q&A session in New Zealand with a live audience to discuss the film. According to film graduate Josh Harding on X (formerly Twitter), Cameron has confirmed that Avatar: Fire And Ash will open with a title card that reads “no generative AI was used in the making of this movie”.

James Cameron’s aversion to AI shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as the filmmaker in July 2023 spoke out against the technology, referencing his sci-fi classic Terminator when asked what he thought of AI’s rise in the entertainment industry: “I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn’t listen.”

Cameron added that he doesn’t believe the technology behind AI will be able to replace writers, saying: “It’s never an issue of who wrote it, it’s a question of, is it a good story?”

“I just don’t personally believe that a disembodied mind that’s just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said — about the life that they’ve had, about love, about lying, about fear, about mortality — and just put it all together into a word salad and then regurgitate it … I don’t believe that have something that’s going to move an audience,” Cameron continued.

The writer-director also said that he “certainly wouldn’t be interested” in AI writing scripts for his film, but only time will tell how AI will impact the industry. “Let’s wait 20 years, and if an AI wins an Oscar for Best Screenplay, I think we’ve got to take them seriously,” he said.

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‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’. CREDIT: Disney/20th Century Studios

Other filmmakers who have spoken out against AI include Guillermo del Toro who recently said it can do “semi-compelling screensavers” and “that’s essentially that”.

Elsewhere, James Cameron recently confirmed that Michelle Yeoh will not be starring in the movie but she will feature in its sequel. Yeoh was first announced to join the Avatar franchise in 2019. Cameron previously revealed he shot scenes for the third and fourth films in the franchise in advance to avoid Stranger Things-style ageing issues with the younger cast members. He also previously revealed that he was prepared to end the franchise after the third film if The Way Of Water wasn’t a box office success.

In a four-star review of Avatar: The Way Of Water for NME, Ali Shutler wrote: “Bigger, bolder and definitely better than the original, Avatar: The Way Of Water pushes the technical boundaries of cinema without feeling like a science experiment. It really does need to be seen on the biggest screen possible through a pair of awkward 3D glasses. Unlike its predecessor though, you won’t forget this experience in a hurry.”

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