Avatar: The Way of Wateris dominating box offices, making $53 million on its U.S. opening day alone—but Edie Falco, who plays RDA Commander General Frances Ardmore in the sci-fi epic, says she thought the film had already premiered with far less success and little fanfare.
Appearing onThe Viewwhile promotingThe Way of Water,Falco told host Whoopi Goldberg that she filmed her scenes for theAvatarsequel nearly four years ago. Expecting to hearsomekind of reaction to her performance but only receiving radio silence, the actress chalked it up to a box office flop.
“This next, the secondAvatarthat’s coming out, I shot, I think, four years ago. Then I’ve been busy, I’ve been doing stuff and somebody mentionedAvatar. I thought, ‘Oh, I guess it came out and didn’t do very well’—because I didn’t hear anything! So I thought, ‘It happens, ya know?'”
It wasn’t until someone mentioned the impending premiere ofThe Way of Waterin passing that Falco says she realized the 192-minute blockbuster hadn’t been released yet, adding:
“Then someone said recently, ‘Oh,Avataris coming out!’ [And I go] ‘It hasn’t come out yet?'”
Related:Avatar: The Way of Water Dominates Box Office on Opening Day with $53M for $130M-$150M U.S. Opening
Why It Took Falco So Long to Hear Anything AboutThe Way of Water
No one could fault Falco for thinkingAvatar: The Way of Waterhad fizzled out in theaters—the film, which comes nearly 15 years after its predecessor, began filming back in 2017 and had its release date pushed back several times.
Add a global pandemic to the mix, andThe Way of Waterdidn’t hit theaters until December 2022, a long way from when the sequel was initially announced in 2010 in an attempt to ride the first film’s wave of success.
Luckily forAvatarfans, there’ll be a much shorter wait for subsequent sequels—Avatar 3is slated to hit theaters July 23, 2025. While there are two more movies in development,Avatar 3’sbox office performance will determine whether we’ll ever actually return to Pandora forAvatar 4orAvatar 5.Regardless (and perhaps optimistically), tentative release dates have been set for July 03, 2025 and July 03, 2025, respectively.
As for Falco, it’s unknown how General Ardmore will play into the plot ofAvatar 3,but the actress joked that her loud mouth probably won’t hear much about the sequels, either.
“They don’t [tell me anything], and now I’ll never work again because I said that, but…” she laughed.
Avatar: The Way of Wateris in theaters now. Watch Falco’s full interview onThe Viewbelow:
