Zoe Saldaña Jokes About ‘Avatar’ Sequel Delays: ‘I’m Gonna Be 53 When the Last 'Avatar' Movie Comes Out!’

Zoe Saldaña is joining fans in lamenting the delay of future Avatar films. 

Posting on her Instagram stories Wednesday, the actress linked to the recently announced news that the three upcoming sequels to last year’s Avatar: The Way of Water are delayed. 

“Great! I’m gonna be 53 when the last avatar comes out,” Saldaña, 44, jokingly wrote above the news headline, adding an emoji of a shocked face.

“I was 27 when I shot the very first @avatar movie,” she added with a bespectacled disguised face emoji. 

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Disney, the distributor behind the hit sci-fi franchise, announced Tuesday that Avatar 3 will arrive in theaters Dec. 19, 2025; Avatar 4 on Dec. 21, 2029; and Avatar 5 on Dec. 19, 2031, according to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

Saldaña has played Neytiri, a bow-and-arrow-wielding Na’vi warrior and mother, since James Cameron’s Oscar-winning Avatar, released in 2009 and still reportedly the world’s No. 1 highest-grossing movie of all time (not adjusting for inflation). That first installment began filming in 2007.

If Avatar 5 will serve as the franchise’s finale and its purported 2031 release date holds, the entire on-screen series will span 22 years. 

Following the news of the delays, producer Jon Landau tweeted that each film in the Avatar franchise “is an exciting but epic undertaking that takes time to bring to the quality level we as filmmakers strive for and audiences have come to expect. The team is hard at work and can’t wait to bring audiences back to Pandora in December 2025."

While Cameron and his team are keeping production and plot details under wraps, the writer-director hinted that lead character Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington, will no longer narrate future stories. Avatar 3, he indicated, will instead feature Jake's teenage son Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), who was introduced in The Way of Water, as narrator. 

In a behind-the-scenes featurette for Avatar: The Way of Water, Saldaña and Worthington discussed how much had changed in the years between filming the original Avatar and its sequel, including becoming parents — just like their on-screen characters. 

“Something really special happened when we reunited for Avatar 2," said Saldaña, adding that the sequel’s “stakes are higher” because it’s centered on a Na’vi family. (Saldaña shares twin sons Cy Aridio and Bowie Ezio, 8, and son Zen Anton Hilario, 6, with husband Marco Perego-Saldaña.)

“Zoe and me were always just very close, and that gave us absolute freedom to bounce off each other and just enjoy the ride,” said Worthington. 

Saldaña also told PEOPLE how she prepared to play Neytiri again after years between filming Avatar and its sequel.

"It did take a little more time for my body to assimilate, to return to some of the exercises and the practices," she said. "I'm proud of the fact that [Cameron] has lost bets of whether or not I can hit a mark [with my archery]. I think the first time was a hundred bucks?"