Late Avatar Producer Jon Landau Helped Shape Frontiers Of Pandora’s New DLC, From The Ashes

The upcoming Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora DLC will continue to honor the legacy of one of the minds behind the franchise. While the larger Avatar franchise has been primarily found on the big screen, games like Frontiers of Pandora have opened up the alien setting to players. Designed with the intent of the filmmakers in mind, Frontiers of Pandora takes the ideas that both make it and get cut from the film and places the player within that space.

The trick is that the game, developed by Lightstorm, still has to feel like it’s part of the world created by James Cameron. This includes Jon Landau, one of the creative producers on the film. Now, a year after he passed away, his influence is still influencing the direction of the game thanks to how he helped shape the narrative direction of the title.

Jon Landau Influenced The Direction Of Frontiers Of Pandora

Jon Landau was a major figure in the production of the Avatar films, working hand-in-hand with director James Cameron on the project. Sadly, Landau passed away in 2024 due to complications from cancer. Since then, the franchise he helped Cameron bring to the big screen has carried on, with Avatar: Fire and Ash set to hit theaters in just a few weeks at the time of this writing. Landau’s influence on the series even extends beyond the films, according to the team behind Frontiers of Pandora. During an interview with ComicBook’s Chris Killian, Lightstorm VP Josh Izzo and Creative Director Omar Bouali reflected on the influence Jon Landau had on the overall game.

Citing a previous interview he had with Landau before his passing, Kllian asked the developers if the “From the Ashes” DLC will include any sort of dedication or tribute to Landau. The pair revealed that “Before he passed, he was part of our initial story ideas. And he really did help set up the larger framework of where this was going. His initial kind of take on this helped frame up where we started, and then we took that as our springboard to get to where we are today. But he was at the beginning of the process.”

Frontiers Of Pandora Feels Connected To The Larger Avatar Franchise Thanks To Landau’s Contributions

One of the elements that makes Frontiers of Pandora so fun for fans of the film franchise is the way it directly references and connects to the films. The game is considered canon with the movies, even alluding to the main characters and the plot beats that drive the story forward. The collaboration between Lightstorm and Cameron’s team has been a selling point for the game since the very beginning, so it comes as no surprise that this extends to the “From the Ashes” DLC and the ways it builds on the plot and worldbuilding of the third film.

This suggests that a big part of the development was rooted in the long-term planning for the Avatar series, which means that Landau would have been able to offer his input and throw out story ideas. The Avatar franchise is a famously thoroughly sketched-out concept, with James Cameron openly discussing how he intended the series to extend to five films (although he’s recently admitted that Avatar: Fire and Ash could serve as a concluding chapter). Therefore, it makes sense that the team behind the “From the Ashes” DLC of Frontiers of Pandora would be able to plan ahead of time and make sure that the game honors the original ideas.

That also means that on some level, the spirit of Jon Landau’s influence on the franchise continues to be an element even as the series evolves in unexpected ways. The “From the Ashes” DLC plays off the new developments occurring across Pandora, all while building on the foundation that Landau helped establish. It’s a fitting way for the producer’s memory to be honored, highlighting how his influence on the franchise goes far beyond his life.