Summary
Avatar: Fire and Ashcame out of CinemaCon as one of the biggest winners, generating buzz among lucky attendees. Now, fans who didn’t get such a chance have a new still — rich with visual clues and narrative hints — to feast their eyes on.
Avatar Fire and Ashwill be the third installment in James Cameron’s very successfulAvatarfranchise, after 2009’sAvatarand 2022’sAvatar: The Way of Water. The first two installments earned a combined $5 billion, making them two of the three highest-grossing movies ever. As is customary for Cameron films, the latestAvatarinstallment is expected to have a longer runtime as it introduces audiences to yet another one of Pandora’s inhabitants, the Ash people, who unleash their fire attacks in battle against the Na’vi. Equally promised inAvatar: Fire and Ashis a darker, more emotionally intensepathos. Notable returns include Sigourney Weaver’s Doctor Grace Augustine.
Payakan And The Tulkun World Will Play A Huge Pivotal InAvatar: Fire and Ash
Tulkun Culture Will Be Explored In The Film
While the CinemaCon attendees were treated to exclusive footage yet to debut in the public sphere, the general audience can make do with a new still courtesy ofEmpire Magazine. The image shows Jake Sully’s second born, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), surfing on his Tulkun, Payakan –the same from the previous movie,Avatar: The Way of Water.According to VFX supervisor and executive producer Richard Baneham, Payakan’s inclusion would be “at the very highest level.”Baneham also revealed toEmpirethe exciting introduction of Payakan’s female Tulkun friend and co-outcast, Ta’nok. There are also clan Matriarch and Patriarch, the former of whom would be adorned with rings and tattoos “to suggest [history] beyond what we’re seeing.” So, not only would there be more of the whale-like Tulkuns, butAvatar: Fire and Ashwould offer fans a general dive intoTulkun culture and society.
Avatar: Fire and Ash’s first look and Baneham’s words reinforce James Cameron’s earlier remarks of the movie potentially being “one of the most emotional and maybe the best of the three so far.” Lo’ak’s relationship with the lone Tulkun, Payakan, turned out to be among the main sources ofAvatar: The Way of Water’s emotional weight. It’s also in line withCameron’s comments about both moviesbeing closely related ideologically.
We cannot defeat an enemy that comes from the stars.
The world of Pandora has become a darling in both box office records and the Best Visual Effects category at the Academy Awards, and fans should reasonably expect the third movie to carry on the legacy. However,Ne Zha 2’s $2.1 billion grossis good cause for worry to anyone who doesn’t wish to seeAvatar: Fire and Ashbecome the firstAvatarfilm not to top the year-end box office. Although there is no way of knowing if Stephen Lang’s Colonel Miles Quaritch and his crew are at it again with their relentless revenge hunt for Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully and his family, an ominous line from the exclusive CinemaCon footage, “We cannot defeat an enemy that comes from the stars,” heavily hints at the continued threat of colonizers inAvatar: Fire and Ash…or it might just bethe Ash people, as the concept art photo of the clanback in January suggested.
Avatar: Fire and Ashis due in theaters on December 19.
