It wasn’t that long ago that people were worrying about the Avatar sequel. It had been too long since the first, they said, claiming the first hadn’t left any “cultural footprints.” Even James Cameron was worried. Now mere weeks into its theatrical run, it’s already on point to outgross the excessively profitable Top Gun: Maverick. You know what that means: It’s time to talk about all those sequels Cameron has long threatened. And it sounds like the third is going to take the franchise in yet another unexpected direction.
Where The Way of Water was about, well, water, Avatar 3, Cameron recently teased, will be about fire. In a new interview with the French outlet 20 Minutes (as caught by Total Film), the decidedly non-prolific filmmaker said his next installment will show “different cultures from those I have already shown.” So far we’ve only seen goody-goody Na’vi, who only want to live their lives and fly freaky birds and swim with weird fish. Pandora could really use some jerks.
And so you’ll finally see some not great Na’vi. Cameron says Avatar 3 will focus on “fire,” which he said be represented by what he called the “Ash People.”
“I want to show the Na’vi from another angle because, so far, I have only shown their good sides,” Cameron explained. “In the early films, there are very negative human examples and very positive Na’vi examples,” he added. “In ‘Avatar 3,’ we will do the opposite. We will also explore new worlds, while continuing the story of the main characters. I can say that the last parts will be the best. The others were an introduction, a way to set the table before serving the meal.”
There’s a chance Cameron will be making Avatar sequels until the end of recorded time, and surely Pandora’s an even bigger joint than it seems. Could one of the sequels show a Na’vi city? Some Na’vi spelunking sounds like it would be cool. Maybe there’s a Na’vi casino somewhere. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. In the meantime, it will be nice to see Na’vi fighting each other, not just mean humans or mean humans who died and then got their own avatars.
(Via 20 Minutes and Total Film)