Does ‘Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’ take place before or after the movies?

It’s been a year since James Cameron demolished the global box office with Avatar: The Way of Water. The next sequel, tentatively titled Avatar: The Seed Bearer won’t be in theaters until Dec. 2025 but, fortunately, if you’re itching to get back to this lush alien world Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has your back.

Developed by Ubisoft, this PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC release sees you play a Na’vi finding their place within Pandora, battling the invading human forces, and understanding what it means to commune with Eywa.

So, when during the movie timeline does Frontiers of Pandora take place?

The game’s setting

Without spoiling anything specific, the introduction to the game leaps forward in time. It opens with a scene set before the events of Avatar and then briefly jumps to the events of the first movie, which takes place in 2154. The vast majority of the game’s story then takes place in the year 2169, or a year before Avatar: The Way of Water happens.

This means the movies heavily influence the game’s story but don’t directly cross over with it. The events of the game take place in what’s dubbed “The Western Frontier”, a new region not featured in the movies and features an entirely new cast of characters. That said, the Pandoran flora and fauna will be immediately recognizable to anyone who’s seen the movies.

Ubisoft has confirmed that the events of Frontiers of Pandora are canon to the franchise, so perhaps characters or locations from the game will appear in future sequels.

Either way, if you’re a fan of Avatar, getting to explore Pandora for yourself is a treat that shouldn’t be missed.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on Dec. 7, 2023.