James Cameron has always been a filmmaker who thinks long-term, and not just about technology, but about the people at the center of his stories.
With Avatar: Fire and Ash, the visionary director deepens the emotional core of the franchise, turning attention to themes of legacy, personal responsibility and how today’s choices ripple into tomorrow.
“Preparation for the future and the actions that you take now are going to impact generations down the line,” Cameron told Blavity’s Shadow and Act during our interview with him and the cast. “Jake doesn’t want to declare a war on the sky people. He doesn’t want to bring the fury of all their weapon systems, and their missiles, and their aircraft down on his people. He’s very guarded about that. And then obviously, there’s a certain point where that conflict is inevitable.”
The children are becoming leaders
For Cameron, this chapter of the Avatar story is just as much about growing up under pressure as it is about combat. “The kids, I think what we’re seeing is the kids growing into their future roles,” he said. “I don’t think they’re thinking about legacy any more than I was when I was 15. I just want to know what’s the next thing. How do I get in? How do I do this? And it’s being in a way forced upon them.”
Kiri, especially, stands at a complicated crossroads. “Kiri feels this tremendous sense of responsibility,” Cameron said. “Lo’ak just wants his father to recognize that he can play a role, that he can mature into the son that Jake wants him to be. And there’s obviously the phantom presence of his older brother who was killed, and he blames himself for that. To me, it was an exploration of the family dynamics and the dynamics of the culture as well.”
Expanding Na’vi culture and raising the stakes
Beyond the Sully family, Fire and Ash also marks a deeper dive into the many cultural threads of Pandora — a contrast from the original film.
“We see the Na’vi culture, but there is no Na’vi culture,” Cameron explained. “There’s the reef people culture, there’s the forest people culture, there’s the ash people culture, which is very, very different than I think what one would’ve imagined.”
Where Avatar once centered on spectacle, the new chapters ask more of the audience, both emotionally and narratively. “I think the first film, it was a simpler story in a sense, which is fine because we were there to create the beauty, and the tension and all that,” he said. “And we kept the story fairly simple. And we were doing cinema in a completely new way that hadn’t been done before. So I think each film gets a little more complex, and a little more novelistic and a little more interior.”
Cameron believes that shift has only made the characters more compelling. “So far people are responding very well to going on that personal journey with these characters they know, and also falling in love with Varang, by the way. If you could use the term falling in love, I don’t know, maybe not, but you can’t not watch her.”
Kiri’s evolution, in particular, sits at the intersection of mystery and vulnerability. “Kiri especially is at risk from an identity perspective because she doesn’t understand what’s happening to her,” he said. “There are things happening inside her mind. Maybe she’s mentally ill. She thinks she is. ‘Am I crazy?’ And yet she obviously is coming in touch with a power that’s deeply seated within her.”
That complexity is exactly what Cameron wanted to explore. “Sigourney plays it so beautifully — her uncertainty, her vulnerability, her fear, and yet her strength slowly emerging through that. I think it’s one of the more fascinating threads of the movie.”