Avatar: The Way of Water is 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 on The View while promoting The Way of Water, Falco told host Whoopi Goldberg that she filmed her scenes for the Avatar sequel nearly four years ago. Expecting to hear some kind of reaction to her performance but only receiving radio silence, the actress chalked it up to a box office flop.

“This next, the second Avatar that’s coming out, I shot, I think, four years ago. Then I’ve been busy, I’ve been doing stuff and somebody mentioned Avatar. 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?’”

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It wasn’t until someone mentioned the impending premiere of The Way of Water in passing that Falco says she realized the 192-minute blockbuster hadn’t been released yet, adding:

“Then someone said recently, ‘Oh, Avatar is coming out!’ [And I go] ‘It hasn’t come out yet?’”

Why It Took Falco So Long to Hear Anything About The Way of Water

     20th Century Studios

No one could fault Falco for thinking Avatar: The Way of Water had 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, and The Way of Water didn’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 for Avatar fans, there’ll be a much shorter wait for subsequent sequels—Avatar 3 is slated to hit theaters December 20, 2024. While there are two more movies in development, Avatar 3’s box office performance will determine whether we’ll ever actually return to Pandora for Avatar 4 or Avatar 5. Regardless (and perhaps optimistically), tentative release dates have been set for December 18, 2026 and December 22, 2028, respectively.

As for Falco, it’s unknown how General Ardmore will play into the plot of Avatar 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 Water is in theaters now. Watch Falco’s full interview on The View below: