James Cameron a visionary director, and the Avatar franchise continues to push the boundaries of filmmaking possibilities. While it took years between the original movie and The Way of Water (both of which are streaming with a Disney+ subscription), the hype is real around the third movie Fire and Ash. Although Ash’s Sam Worthington's comments about Jake and Neytiri's relationship has me nervous for them.
What we know about Avatar: Fire and Ash is limited, but it's expected to break new ground in regard to the world of Pandora. The story will follow up on The Way of Water's ending, and in an interview with Empire Worthington revealed how the previous film fill influence the threequel. In his words:
Because of Neteyam’s death, there is now a division in that relationship. That’s a great design by Jim — how do you split apart the perfect love story? Jake and Neytiri share this painful wound, but they can’t seem to heal each other.
Now this is an intriguing twist for the leading duo of Avatar, who have always found a way to unite in the face of adversity. The death of their firstborn son has forever changed the family dynamic forever, and it seems we'll see that play out throughout Fire and Ash's runtime.
Zoe Saldaña has also teased the pain Neytiri is going through in the forthcoming threequel, so that's no doubt going to be a huge part of the story. Things will be further complicated with the family's inclusion of Spider, a human Neytiri resents. I'm personally glad we'll see these stories continue to evolve, rather than simply moving past that major character death.
The teaser for Avatar: Fire and Ash showed a glimpse of this interpersonal struggle, which will occur as our heroes are battling with the Ash People and a new villain. Later in that same interview Worthington further spoke about the way his character and Neytiri are dealing with their grief, offering:
So they kind of split, not because they want to, but because they’re just trying to survive within themselves. Jake heads back to battle and Neytiri kind of closes down.
While the Avatar movies are obviously known for being visual spectacles, but there's also a deeper story involved. Once Jake and Neytiri's circle expanded to a family, we got a handful of new characters to care about. Let's just hope they all make it out of Fire and Ash alive.
As previously mentioned, our heroes are going to come to battle with the Ash People, which is the first time that we'll see different tribes of Na'vi in conflict with each other. And with the looming threat of the RDA and Quaritch, it sounds like we're in for a layered story.
Our questions will be answered when Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters on December 19th as part of the 2025 movie release list.
