Disney's Space Opera Mega Hit Returns As Global Sensation After Ending An Era

Published Oct 2, 2026, 3:00 PM EDT Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more. Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics." Disney+ has just seen a massive space opera come back on streaming in several countries, and this sci-fi movie's resurgence happens after it went through the end of a key era. Disney+'s roster of movies is known for featuring some of the biggest space operas of all time. After all, the streaming service is the home of Lucasfilm's Star Wars franchise. From the original trilogy to the prequels to the sequel trilogy and more, there are several Star Wars movies and TV shows available on Disney+. Recently, Pedro Pascal's The Mandalorian and Grogu was added to that roster of releases. That said, Disney+ is also the streaming home of other sci-fi franchises. For instance, even though it is primarily a superhero franchise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe goes heavy on sci-fi elements. The upcoming Avengers: Doomsday will be all about the multiverse, an inherent sci-fi plot device. Disney+ also holds James Cameron's Avatar franchise. From that high-grossing film series comes the space opera that is now resurging on the streaming service worldwide, as Avatar: Fire and Ash has found its way back to the Top 10 charts of many countries, doing so after the Avatar movie ended an era on the streamer. Is It The Dawn Of A New Era For Fire & Ash? At the time of writing, Avatar: Fire and Ash is trending on Disney+ in 28 countries, according to data from FlixPatrol. The third Avatar movie is the latest in Cameron's multi-billion dollar space opera franchise. That said, the sci-fi movie has already gone through the end of its main era on the streaming service, as Avatar: Fire and Ash is not one of the entries on Disney+'s Top 10 Movies chart, which is currently being led by Toy Story 5, per FlixPatrol. Cameron's 2025 Avatar movie is also not trending on Disney+ in the United States, where Toy Story 5 also leads. Still, Avatar: Fire and Ash's new streaming feat on Disney+ is exciting. After all, out of the 28 countries where the movie is trending on the streamer as of writing, the space opera recently returned to the Disney+ Top 10 in 13 of those nations this Thursday, October 1. If Avatar: Fire and Ash manages to hold on to that streaming success in countries like Albania, the Czech Republic, France, Romania, Serbia, and many more, then the sci-fi movie will have a decent chance of returning to Disney+'s global Top 10 Movies chart. At #10 on that list is Spidey and the Avengers: Halloween Team-Up! Avatar's Future Explained The next two movies in the Avatar franchise have already been handed release dates. While movie studios are known to shift dates around, and so these could still change in the years before the sci-fi movies are released, Avatar 4 is currently set to arrive in theaters on December 21, 2029, while its follow-up, Avatar 5, will be released on December 19, 2031. For now, movement on those projects is on hold as Cameron figures out how to produce them at a two-thirds of the budget and in half the time it has taken for Avatar: Fire and Ash and its predecessors. Release Date December 19, 2025 Runtime 197 Minutes Director James Cameron Writers Amanda Silver, Rick Jaffa, James Cameron, Josh Friedman, Shane Salerno Producers Jon Landau, James Cameron Prequel(s) Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water Franchise(s) Avatar