Although the Avatar movies are named after a specific type of character, Avatar: Fire & Ash risks completely forgetting this original premise. Avatar: Fire & Ash’s story has a lot of ground to cover. After the relatively straightforward plot of 2009’s Avatar, 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water complicated matters on Pandora. The sequel introduced Jake and Neytiri’s children as well as their adopted daughter Kiri and made Quaritch’s human son Spider pivotal to the future of the series. Avatar: The Way of Water’s ending left various plot threads dangling, and the series must tie up these loose ends.

Avatar: Fire & Ash must reveal whether Lo’ak, in his attempts to gain more independence, stayed behind with the Metkayina as Jake and Neytiri left the water clans to battle the RDA. The sequel must explain what happened to Payakan the outcast Tulkun, and whether Spider’s decision to save Quaritch’s life was ever discovered by his adopted family, the Sully clan. Avatar: Fire & Ash needs more of General Ardmore, the franchise’s most underrated villain, and should explain whether Quaritch had a change of heart thanks to his son’s bravery. However, all of this ignores the franchise’s original premise.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash Can Bring Back Characters Like Jake Sully

Since the original movie was centered around a human protagonist becoming one of the Na’vi via his avatar (and that is where its title came from), it is bizarre that the Avatar franchise hasn’t returned to the idea of humans becoming one with the Na’vi via their Avatars. Thanks to Avatar: The Way of Water, Jake is more Na’vi than Avatar at this point, while Quaritch’s team of Avatar RDA soldiers are technically Recombinants. The franchise’s original idea was that, although human technology allowed Jake to infiltrate the Na’vi community for nefarious purposes, the same technology eventually saved his soul.

Jake’s avatar allowed him to truly become one of the Na’vi and switch sides to defend them in the original movie’s ending. By the time Avatar: The Way of Water begins, Jake is arguably the most important figure in the Na’vi resistance movement. Avatar: Fire & Ash may kill off Jake, and this twist might benefit the series as a whole. However, this would make the franchise’s decision to abandon its original premise all the more inexplicable. Since 2009’s original movie, the Avatar movies have barely even mentioned the Avatars themselves.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash Can Set Up A Surprising Na’vi Hero

Although not a lot of concrete plot details are known about the sequel’s story, James Cameron’s comments about Avatar: Fire & Ash’s villainous Na’vi prove the sequel will move even further from the original premise. By introducing these villainous Na’vi, as Cameron teased to the French outlet 20Minutes, the creator of the series is delving even deeper into the society and culture of Pandora. Like Avatar’s deleted Dream Hunt sequence, this can be an interesting way of illustrating more about the Na’vi homeworld. However, it makes Avatars themselves and their ability to join humans and Na’vi together even less relevant.

Spider’s decision to have mercy on his drowning father might result in Quaritch finally changing his mind about the Na’vi in Avatar: Fire & Ash.

Luckily, one subplot ensures that this may not be the case. Avatar: Fire & Ash will feature the return of Stephen Lang’s Quaritch, a Na’vi-hating villain who became part-Na’vi himself when he returned as a Recombinant in Avatar: The Way of Water. Spider’s decision to have mercy on his drowning father might result in Quaritch finally changing his mind about the Na’vi in Avatar: Fire & Ash. This could mean Quaritch and his fellow Recombinants might follow in the footsteps of Jake Sully and become unlikely allies to the Na’vi cause, ensuring the eponymous concept would once again be central.

How Future Avatar Movies Can Bring Back The Franchise’s Original “Avatar” Meaning

Quaritch And His Squad Could Become Heroic Na’vi Avatars

While Quaritch’s potential Avatar redemption might seem unlikely, this twist was already hinted at in his relationship with Spider, his human son who was raised by the Na’vi. Furthermore, the revelation would arrive just in time to complicate the morality of the series. Avatar: Fire And Ash’s new part-human Avatar heroes could provide a perfect contrast as Avatar: The Way of Water’s sequel introduces its villainous Na’vi. Unexpectedly heroic humans would fit right alongside these lethal new Na’vi characters, proving that the story of the series is deeper than it seemed.

Although Avatar: Fire And Ash’s Na’vi twist shouldn’t upend the franchise’s morality and turn the Pandora natives into full-blown villains, it makes perfect sense for the series to start introducing more morally ambiguous humans and Na’vi. The easiest way to achieve this is through Avatars, since gaining an Avatar allows human characters to see the world through Na’vi’s eyes. Thus, Avatar: Fire & Ash should bring back the original premise of the Avatar series by reintroducing the premise of heroic human Avatars.

Source: 20Minutes

Avatar 3
is expected to be released on December 19, 2025.