Avatar: The Way of Water introduced us to a whole new set of characters that will be carrying the franchise forward into Avatar 3 (and beyond), with one of the most pivotal new additions being Kiri a teenage Na’vi girl who is played by Sigourney Weaver. Ever since hearing that Weaver was playing Kiri, fans have had a LOT of questions about why that casting was done, and what connection Kiri has to Dr. Grace Augustine, Sigourney Weaver’s human character from Avatar, and the scientist who developed the Avatar program.
During the first Avatar, Grace Augustine was mortally wounded in an aerial battle with the RDA and Col. Quaritch. The Na’vi’s Omaticaya Clan tried to use a ritual to transfer Grace’s spirit from her human body into her Na’vi body – but she was too wounded to survive the process. Grace’s longtime studies of Pandora and its living conscious, Eywa, ultimately led to her spirit connecting with the planet at the moment of her death. It seemed like James Cameron taking a venture into deeper concepts of spirituality and its connection to the environment – but Avatar 2 suggests t could be a much more pivotal plot-point…
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WARNING: Avatar 2 SPOILERS Follow!
Avatar: Kiri’s Connection to Grace Augustine Explained
Early on in Avatar: The Way of Water we get Kiri’s origin story, during the montage of Jake Sully explaining how he built his family with Neytiri. It’s revealed that Kiri was born from Grace Augustine’s Avatar body, which had been left vacant after her death, but still somehow grew and birthed a child.
Avatar: Who Is Kiri’s Father?
Throughout Avatar 2, there is a running joke and/or mystery about who Kiri’s father truly is. By the end of The Way of Water we still don’t get a clear answer – but there is clearly something significant about Kiri. Kiri is shown through little side-scenes through Avatar 2 that Kiri is much more in tune with the deeper spirit of Pandora – even if she doesn’t yet know that the connection could be her ability to commune with Eywa.
…And that might be the answer to the mystery of Kiri’s parentage.
Since creating Pandora and fleshing it out in the first Avatar movie, it’s been clear that James Cameron is flirting with some deeper themes of religion and spirituality in this series. How far Cameron has been willing to go with that religious mythology has been a big question hanging over the series – and it’s bne that gets even bigger with the introdction of Kiri.
Kiri: Child of Eywa?
That’s all to say: rather than Kiri’s father being a major twist reveal, it would be a different kind of twist to reveal that Grace’s communion with Eywa resulted in some kind of immaculate conception scenario, so that Kiri is “the child” of Eywa. It would fit with a lot of the themes and story tropes James Cameron enjoys – first and foremost being powerful, independent female characters. It also goes with Cameron’s clear belief that Earth is “alive” in a sense, and all the organisms living in it are connected through it.
Finally, it pulls from story thread that are being woven throughout these films, which could be setting up Grace/Kiri on a character arc where she goes from being human to becoming the actual “avatar” of Eywa itself. That would make her a major heroic figure in later sequels, as Kiri could be the one to summon the entirety of Pandora’s resources for a final showdown with the RDA.
…And after Avatar: The Way of Water, we have a feeling that the Na’vi will need a Christ-like miracle to save their planet.
MORE: How Quaritch Returns Explained | How Avatar 2 Sets Up Avatar 3 | Avatar 2 Introduces A New “Unobtanium” MacGuffin
