James Cameron Promises Avatar: Fire and Ash Explores Something No Other Hollywood Movie Has

Avatar: Fire and Ash director James Cameron has opened up more about the film’s story, explaining how it will be different from other Hollywood blockbusters. Speaking with Empire (via Collider), the filmmaker revealed that Fire and Ash and its forthcoming sequels will not shy away from dealing with grief. “I think what commercial Hollywood doesn’t do well is deal with grief the way human beings really deal with it,” Cameron said. “You know, characters get killed off, and then in the next movie everybody’s happy again. I’ve lost a lot of people, friends and family members, over the last six or eight years, and it doesn’t work that way.”

Elaborating, Cameron stated that grief can “[make] you just kind of depressed and f***ed up.” While Avatar: Fire and Ash will still be a big-screen spectacle full of entertaining action sequences, Cameron intends for the remaining installments to deal with human emotions such as grief in a “naturalistic, novelistic way” through how the Sully family processes what happens to them. “Now, of course, they’re not human, but this is a movie for us, by us, right? Science-fiction is always just a big mirror of the human condition,” Cameron said.

In 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, Jake Sully and Neytiri suffer a devastating loss when their oldest son, Neteyam, dies during the film’s climactic battle. Star Zoe Saldaña has suggested this story thread will carry over into Fire and Ash, which finds Jake and Neytiri “on this journey of acceptance” as they attempt to figure out “who they are and what they must be for each other.” According to the actress, the characters are figuring out the best way to protect their family as they continue to fight against the RDA on Pandora.

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With Avatar: Fire and Ash, Cameron is looking to push the franchise’s storytelling forward. He’s introducing new Na’vi tribes, such as the Ash People, to break the established “‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.” Now that the Avatar series is on its third installment, the director feels comfortable to start to “riff on it and twist it and turn it” from a narrative perspective. While he admits the risks may not pay off, he believes it’s important to take some chances. “[I]if you’re not making brave choices, you’re wasting everybody’s time and money.”

Avatar: Fire and Ash‘s tackling of grief sheds light on Cameron’s earlier comments about his storytelling approach. When audiences sit down to watch the movie over the holiday season, they’ll be expecting plenty of Cameron’s trademark bombastic setpieces, but could be caught off-guard when they see a deep study of complex emotions. It’s important to note Cameron has stressed Fire and Ash is not a “depressed and f***ed up” movie, so it will still feature the crowd-pleasing moments viewers want to watch on the big screen. However, the decision to focus on Jake and Neytiri’s grief should add more dramatic weight to the proceedings and give the movie a relatable emotional core. It sounds like Cameron is using his personal experiences as a foundation for this topic, which should make it feel genuine and authentic.

The Avatar films have rarely earned accolades for their writing (Cameron did receive a Best Original Screenplay nomination from the Writers Guild Awards for the original). That hasn’t stopped them from becoming massive box office hits, but as the series continues, it would be nice if moviegoers found a strong emotional through-line to connect with. By using Jake and Neytiri as avatars (no pun intended) to explore “the human condition,” Cameron could be crafting films that balance breathtaking spectacle with substance that has the power to move viewers. Perhaps Fire and Ash will help some audience members process any grief they’re experiencing at the time.