It was just a few months ago that The Walt Disney Company released the first full trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film in the hit series from James Cameron. Ahead of the release of the upcoming TRON: Ares though, another brand new trailer has been released, one that will almost certainly play on IMAX screens ahead of that highly-anticipated third movie. Though the new Avatar: Fire and Ash trailer naturally drops new footage for the sequel, it also delivers major plot details for the film that will widen the eyes for fans of the series.
As previously confirmed, Avatar: Fire and Ash will pick up after the events of 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water (itself another colossal hit for Cameron that grossed over $2.3 billion worldwide), telling the story of the Sully clan while also introducing yet another new type of Na’vi into the equation. The film doesn’t stop there either though as the overarching plot of Miles Quaritch’s revenge, and the lingering threat of human invasion of Pandora are both still very much alive. Check it out for yourself below!
The first Avatar movie introduced us to the world of Pandora and the Na’vi that lived in the clouds, flying their Mountain banshees into battle and across the sky. Naturally the second film took things in a different direction with The Way of Water bringing Na’vi tribes that have physiology and culture built entirely around living in the sea. With Avatar: Fire and Ash, we of course meet a tribe that lives in a volcanic region of the planet, but what the trailer reveals is this new tribe’s connection to the lore itself.
As the trailer begins we’re introduced to Varang, the leader of the Na’vi “Ash People” played by Oona Chaplin. She holds her hand over a flame and calls it “the only pure thing in this world.” The character then goes on to describe a key event in the time of this tribe, adding: “The fire came from the mountain. Burnt our forests. My people cried for help but Eywa did not come.”
For longtime Avatar fans, this sentence is a heavy one as it immediately reveals the feelings of the Ash people toward Eywa, the deity worshipped by most of the Na’vi, including Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri, as the biological network that exists and connects all live on Pandora. What this line confirms is that this group has a vindictive streak against Eywa, and likely anyone that still worships her, meaning the Sully clan are in trouble.
As if that reveal wasn’t enough for the larger plot thread of Avatar: Fire and Ash, another major twist is also revealed. In one sequence, Spider, the adopted human child of the Sullys, is revealed to be walking around Pandora without the use of his breathing mask. The trailer seems to tease that Spider was made this way by none other than Eywa herself, as his body is shown connected to the neural link of the planet, seemingly giving him this ability and also healing his body.
As noted specifically by Jake in the trailer, the implication of this is a huge one, because if news of this was to make its way to the humans on the planet it would mean they would never stop trying to colonize the planet and bring the entire Earth population and make it their new home. Naturally, this would almost certainly mean the end of the Na’vi people. To make matters worse, Varang is the one seen learning Spider can exist on Pandora with no mask, only to latter reveal she has formed some kind of alliance with Quartich; so that secret isn’t going to stay that way for long.
All of that is to say that the trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash just proved with these major story reveals that Cameron and his team of writers not only have no shortage of ideas to continue building out this franchise for years to come, but they will continue to take what they’ve already developed and use that as a foundation for further ideas and characters. Avatar has often been criticized for not having memorable characters or stories despite its box office success, but that hasn’t stopped the filmmakers from continuing to deliver spectacle with narrative that is sound and interesting.
Avatar: Fire and Ash will be released in theaters, including IMAX 3D, Dolby Cinema 3D, RealD 3D, Cinemark XD, 4DX, ScreenX, and premium screens everywhere on December 19.
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