The third installment of the Avatar franchise, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is scheduled to hit major cinemas from Dec. 17, as director James Cameron seeks to continue the global success of one of history’s highest-grossing film series.
The original Avatar (2009) earned a record $2.9 billion worldwide, while 2022’s follow-up, The Way of Water, grossed around $2.3 billion despite post-pandemic cinema slumps, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Set 16 years after the first film, the story follows hero Jake (Sam Worthington), now a legendary warrior known as Toruk Makto, and his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), mourning the death of their eldest son. The couple raises three children, including Kiri, an adopted Na’vi teen played by Sigourney Weaver, and Spider (Jack Champion), a human considered part of the family.
Cameron said the film explores the challenges of mixed-race children navigating a world divided by tradition and difference. “We’re dealing with a refugee family, essentially immigrants displaced. People can relate to that,” he said at a Paris press conference.
The family encounters the Mangkwan, or Ash People, a Na’vi community displaced by a volcanic eruption. Led by Varang (Oona Chaplin), the group survives through pillaging, revealing a darker side of the Na’vi previously depicted as harmonious with nature.
Humans from the Resources Development Administration return as antagonists, preparing to hunt the Tulkuns, giant sentient marine creatures, to extract amrita, a highly valuable substance, from their brains. Cameron said the film retains strong environmental themes.
“The original story was very environmental in its messaging,” he said.
Filming for the second and third installments occurred in 2017–2018, before the rise of generative artificial intelligence. Cameron defended his “performance capture” technique, which maps actors’ movements onto the Na’vi characters, saying AI was not used in the production.
Two more Avatar films are in production for release later this decade.
