Lucky Duck Bob Iger Has Also Seen An Early Cut Of Avatar: Fire And Ash, And His ‘Breathtaking’ Comments Have Me Stoked

The 2025 box office is off to an interesting start, and while there's lots of potential for big blockbuster hits on the 2025 movie schedule, the movie that is likely to be the biggest winner won’t come out until almost year’s end, Avatar: Fire and Ash. However, Bob Iger has seen James Cameron's film early, and he's already praising it.

The third installment in James Cameron’s massive Avatar franchise won’t be out until December, and by all accounts, post-production work is still ongoing. However, a few people have seen early versions of Fire and Ash. The director has said the movie made his wife cry for hours. Now, Bob Iger revealed during Disney’s 2025 Shareholders Meeting that he had also seen an early version, and his two-word description excited me. Iger said…

While I certainly wouldn’t expect the CEO of Disney to say anything but good things about a movie the studio was making, Iger could have used different language or simply not said anything about the film. The fact that he stopped to praise it is an indication that he expects success. Iger always praised Inside Out 2 during quarterly earnings calls and that movie went on to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time.

“Breathtaking” is certainly what most fans are hoping for. While the Avatar movies may not have the most complex plots, the first two films have more than made up for that in visual spectacle. Part of the reason Avatar films have done so well at the box office is that a lot of people shell out the extra money to watch the movie in 3D, and with praise like this from Iger, I know I'll be doing just that come December. I just wish I could watch the first two movies in 3D again on Disney+.

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At this point, little is known about Avatar: Fire and Ash from a plot perspective. We know that the movie will move the action to a new part of the world of Pandora, a volcanically active part of the planet, and it will introduce a new tribe of Na’vi who live there. Interestingly, indications are that the new tribe will be the primary villains of the story, meaning we could see battles between two groups of Na’vi rather than between Na’vi and humanity (or Na’vi working for humanity)

Disney is certainly expecting big things from Avatar: Fire and Ash, the first two movies in the franchise are among the highest-grossing movies ever made, and anything less from the third installment will likely be viewed as underperforming. Having said that, it’s only been a couple of years since Avatar: The Way of Water, so there are legitimate questions about whether people will turn out in quite so large numbers next time. If the early word of mouth remains so overwhelmingly positive, there’s a good chance of that.