Avatar: Fire and Ash will take fans back to Pandora when the movie debuts in cinemas in December. But this time, fans can expect a slight shift in the franchise’s familiar moral focus.

According to director James Cameron, humans will no longer be the outright bad guys threatening the always peaceful Na’vi. “One thing we wanted to do in this film is not be black-and-white simplistic,” the filmmaker told Empire. “We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.’“

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Cameron also praised Oona Chaplin for her portrayal of Varang, leader of the Ash People. “[She] is so good that I didn’t quite appreciate how good her performance is until we got the Weta animation back,” the director explained. “Varang is the leader of a people who have gone through an incredible hardship. She’s hardened by that. She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil. She’s an enemy, an adversarial character, but [Chaplin] makes her feel so real and alive.”

Cameron went on to offer some insight into the Wind Traders who take to the skies on the backs of gigantic Pandoran creatures. “They’re nomadic traders, equivalent to the camel caravans of the Spice Road back in the Middle Ages,” he said. “And you know, they’re just fun. Like all Na’vi, they live in a symbiosis with their creatures. If you’ve got any nautical blood in your veins, you’ll want to be on [their] ship,” the filmmaker added.

Fire and Ash Introduces New Tribes

Fire and Ash is directed by Cameron from a script he co-wrote with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. The story will follow Jake and Neytiri’s family as they venture into new territory where they meet a new Na’vi tribe with their own relationship to the land. Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, and Giovanni Ribisi will reprise their roles from previous Avatar movies, while Chaplin and David Thewlis appear as new characters.

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Cameron previously hinted at a more aggressive Na’vi people, who became angry due to circumstances. “[The new Na’vi] have a lot of anger and a lot of rage,” he said about the Fire Tribe. “They were destroyed by volcanic eruptions, so they resent nature and everything the forest Na’vi [people] preach. For me, fire is chaos, destruction. The new tribe is the opposite of the previous ones – while they represented a connection with nature, the fire tribe is disconnection,” he added.

Meanwhile, Saldana said fans are in for an emotional ride when the movie hits screens. “The way that we left the Sully family, they’re mourning heavily the loss of their child,” she explained. “So I do believe that that will carry out a great deal in the third installment of Avatar. Jake and Neytiri are on this journey of acceptance, of accepting who they are and what they must be for each other and how they’re going to push forward to keep their family safe.”

Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters worldwide on Dec. 19, 2025.

Source: Empire

Sequel of Avatar: The Way of Water (2022).

Director

James Cameron

Release Date

December 19, 2025

Cast

Michelle Yeoh
, Zoe Saldana
, David Thewlis
, Sigourney Weaver
, Sam Worthington
, Stephen Lang

Writers

James Cameron
, Rick Jaffa
, Amanda Silver

Main Genre

Adventure