Fire and Ash Just Officially Confirmed the Franchise's Real Plot 16 Years Later

New details concerning Avatar: Fire and Ash have just been revealed, and they provide an exciting update to the larger story that the Avatar franchise has been telling since the first 2009 film. Part of a saga that director James Cameron has planned for five installments, the latest Avatar movie sees Jake Sully and his family, who now live with the Metkayina, running afoul of a new Na’vi threat. While the first two films saw the Na’vi primarily as protectors of Pandora, fighting back against the humans of the RDA, the latest chapter has made it clear that not all Na’vi are heroes, as is clearly seen from this new Mangkwan clan.

The Fire and Ash trailer has revealed Varang, the newest antagonist in the world of Avatar. Played by Oona Chaplin, Varang speaks directly against Eywa with a dramatic flourish. She and her ash people live in the mountains, although the marketing for the film has already revealed several ways that their clan will directly cause issues for the peace-seeking Na’vi. The first trailer showed Varang and Quartich forming an alliance, while the second saw a direct assault on the Tlalim, or the Windtraders, in their breathtakingly beautiful airships. With all of this considered, there appears to be an even more shocking story beneath this conflict, which looks like to be the focus of the rest of the series.

Humans Are Trying To Take Pandora As A New World For Themselves

Jake and Neytiri prepare for battle in Avatar: Fire and Ash.Image via Disney

The larger story of Avatar looks to be about humans trying to take not just resources from Pandora, but the entire planet itself, in order to make it their new Earth. Many of the ramifications of this are pondered on in the new trailer, and Spider appears to be the main signal. While for years, since the release of Avatar: The Way of Water, many have speculated that Spider would eventually get a Na’vi body of his own, the new trailer makes it clear that there are many more unexpected changes occurring instead. Rather than building a Na’vi body for Spider, it appears that technology has been developed that will allow humans to live more freely on Pandora. This begins with Spider seen breathing the planet’s atmosphere without needing to wear a mask.

While in miniature, it is exciting to see the character able to freely experience the atmosphere of his home planet, the trailer quickly makes it clear that this detail is more worrisome than it is hopeful. “What if every human being on Earth could live here without a mask?” Jake says in one scene, before immediately cutting to dialogue from another: “Then the Na’vi people will be gone.” This edit leaves a strong feeling of dramatic stakes, and it sets up disturbing questions about where the larger franchise could be going. While the first film saw the RDA plundering Unobtanium from the world, and the second took a greater focus on Quaritch’s attempts at revenge against Jake, it is now clear that there is something more sinister occurring.

The humans are trying to take Pandora for themselves entirely. The first film only gave a brief look at Earth, which was expanded on in deleted scenes, but the planet that Jake left behind is becoming increasingly unlivable. Robbed of resources, polluted, and overpopulated, Earth in this universe resembles a cyberpunk dystopia. This inspired Jake to leave his own kind, finding much greater beauty in the forests of Pandora, and even giving up the promise of repair to his legs. However, it now seems likely that the larger plan for humanity in this world is surprisingly similar to Jake’s own journey. Unfortunately, a migration of this scale would be far more destructive to the planet and its people than a handful of humans joining the Na’vi has been.

Spider’s Tsaheylu Shows Him Becoming More Like The Na’vi

Spider bonds with an Ilu in Avatar Fire and AshImage via Disney

The latest trailer for Fire and Ash does even more than just letting Spider breathe in the Pandoran atmosphere. During one shocking trailer moment, a neural queue is shown extending from Spider’s braid, just like each of the Na’vi have, and he uses it in order to form Tsaheylu, or a bond, with an Ilu. Whatever experimentation is happening on people like Spider that allow them to breathe in the Pandoran atmosphere is clearly much bigger and far-reaching on human physiology. While the thought of Spider being able to live much more like the Na’vi he grew up around is an exciting prospect, there are much darker ramifications to this development.

Confronting the timely themes of Fire and Ash, Spider’s transformation will allow him to have as much agency and control on Pandora as the native Na’vi do, without having to make a full transformation, like Jake and his father, Quartich, did. If Spider is able to bond with an Ilu, then he will also be able to navigate the entire world of Pandora in a powerful and new way. Through his queue, he can connect to Eywa through various plants and trees across the planet, and may even be able to tame an Ikran banshee of his own. This is exciting for Spider, but it is terrifying when considering the outlooks of the other humans on Pandora.

Forming bonds with creatures and the planet itself will help other members of the RDA to exploit the planet and its resources more directly. All of this contributes to Jake’s shocking realization that humans being able to live freely on Pandora will run out the Na’vi. The scale of that battle remains to be seen, but there already appear to be some terrifying conflicts that are brewing between the people of Pandora and the Na’vi. After the end of The Way of Water, everyone from Quaritch to Scoresby’s whaling fleet to General Ardmore have reason to bring warfare to the Na’vi, and it appears that peace is not likely to last for very long.

Jake May Have To Return to His Human Body In Order To Fight Back

Jake is captured by the RDA in Avatar Fire and AshImage via Disney

Jake’s story in the next film is sure to take some shocking turns, as has already been hinted at in the marketing. The first trailer for Fire and Ash contained some shocking hints at the story, and one of the biggest of these was seeing Jake Sully being taken in by the RDA. He appears to be bound, and is led by soldiers in mech suits through a crowd of people. It looks likely that he is being taken off of Pandora, perhaps in order to be put on trial for his crimes against humanity after turning away from them to join the Na’vi. All of this is compelling and has led to great speculation, but several details from the new trailer make this even more shocking.

The future of Jake’s body in the new film is unclear, as no details have been provided concerning what happened to his original human form. The latest trailer shows a shot of a body connected with Eywa that looks like Spider, and adds some great context to the relationship between Pandora and the human bodies. While Jake has been physically disconnected from his human body, and it has been left to bond with Eywa and deteriorate, the life-giving nature of Pandora is certain to leave his body as a prominently integrated part of Pandoran nature. This could potentially create an opportunity for Jake to return to it in the new film.

With the latest developments for how humans can continue to live on Pandora, this could have enormous ramifications for how Jake’s body might be able to continue to function. While the marketing has not explained how Spider’s body was enhanced to better survive the Pandoran conditions, his alliance with the Sullys makes it possible that it comes from a well-meaning place, perhaps from Dr. Norm Spellman or one of the other humans that remain on good terms with the Na’vi. Notably, this technology does not appear to yet be widespread, as most of the attacking members of the RDA still appear to be wearing masks during the film’s teased battle sequences.

James Cameron’s Avatar movies are some of the biggest cinematic events of all time, and Fire and Ash looks like it could be the most exciting and important installment yet. These teased developments concerning humans on Pandora are shocking and give a clear look at where the franchise is surely headed. The tension between the Na’vi and the RDA is not going away any time soon, and it is terrifying to see how humans will now be able to navigate the Pandoran climate with much greater ease. The war for Pandora has only just begun, and it is now clear that there will be some terrible darkness for the Na’vi people in the near future.