{"id":175881,"date":"2025-12-09T19:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/175881\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T19:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:14:07","slug":"fire-and-ash-isnt-about-spectacle-its-about-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/175881\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire and Ash’ Isn’t About Spectacle, It’s About Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Navi might be tall, skinny, and blue, but they\u2019ve still got problems<\/a>. Problems that you and I can relate to. Problems that the world can relate to. And that\u2019s a huge part of why the Avatar franchise<\/a> has become the multi-billion dollar success it is and will probably continue to be.<\/a><\/p>\n

The third film in the saga, Avatar: Fire and Ash, opens in theaters on December 19, and it follows the Sully clan through some of their most difficult times yet. \u201cThis film is very interesting because the family gets separated\u2026 and [the kids] have to learn to rely on each other and rely on ourselves,\u201d star Sigourney Weaver told io9<\/a> in Los Angeles last week. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s a really important time in your life. When you have to do something you don\u2019t think you can do, don\u2019t want to do, and you have to step up. That\u2019s how you grow. [And] it\u2019s not always a nice feeling. It\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in those hard feelings, writer-director James Cameron, as well as his cast, found their connection to the material. A connection that extends well beyond Avatar\u2019s fictional world of Pandora.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim, when he writes these stories, he doesn\u2019t shy away from the realities he knows as a dad,\u201d Weaver said. \u201cThere\u2019s so much that\u2019s real, like the mixed-race family, a mother who\u2019s mourning her son and hates the Sky people even more. All these things are happening now in our world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AvatarNeytiri, played by Zoe Salda\u00f1a. \u2013 20th Century Studios <\/p>\n

Fire and Ash, more so than the previous Avatar films, really goes for it in terms of deep, dark themes. Weaver alludes to some of them, but there are many more, including suicide, racism, capital punishment, and so much more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love what Jim does with these movies,\u201d said Sam Worthington, who plays the lead character, Jake Sully. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t really give you definitive answers. He\u2019s making movies that leave you with questions about how we connect with each other, how we connect with our family, and how we have empathy towards our world. [And] I believe this one does it more than the others even.\u201d<\/p>\n

One character that helps shape that argument is Varang, a villainous new Navi played by Oona Chaplin. Varang is the leader of the Ash people, who have a whole other way of living on Pandora, and, well, she does things a little differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim said to me early on, \u2018Anything that makes her afraid, she\u2019ll run right for it,’\u201d Chaplin says. \u201cAnd that is a very specific kind of character, which is very different from me. I kind of tend to run the other direction if something terrifies me. But it was beautiful to go into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The young cast feels the same way about their characters. Cameron\u2019s script and their fellow actors gave them a strong reality to play with, even if they would eventually become nine feet tall and blue. \u201cAll the actors on the set are so dedicated and want to give so much, and it really makes our jobs very easy,\u201d Bailey Bass, who plays Tsireya, said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the emotional arc that Tsireya has. She shows that you can still be defiant and be strong while being kind and soft. It\u2019s rare. I feel like that\u2019s rare in many characters, and that\u2019s something that she\u2019s continued to hold true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AvatarVarang (Oona Chaplin) in Avatar: Fire and Ash. \u2013 20th Century Studios <\/p>\n

But will Avatar itself hold true? While Cameron has shot footage of the young cast to use in flashbacks for part four, there\u2019s no guarantee the rest of the film will happen. Whatever the case, though, you can tell that the cast all feel a real affinity not just for their characters but for the world itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always be grateful for all the people I\u2019ve met on the cast, the crew, the ways that I\u2019ve gotten to grow because of them,\u201d said Trinity Bliss, who plays Tuk, the youngest Sully. \u201cI\u2019m an Avatar fan, so I think I\u2019d feel sad not to continue the saga, because the story is so beautiful, and it\u2019s already been fleshed out. I just would love to grow with my character and continue to discover her, but I would also just feel immensely grateful for everything thus far.\u201d<\/p>\n

That kind of adoration doesn\u2019t come out of the (pun intended) blue. It comes from the top. Cameron himself talks about the films less like big, grand, sci-fi action films and more like a gathering of friends and family. \u201cThis has been a 20-year journey for me,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cI get to work with the most amazing actors. Some of them, like Sigourney Weaver, have been friends of mine for years. Others have just come into my world. I met Zoe [Salda\u00f1a] and Sam on the first film. Because we shot films two and three together, even though Oona doesn\u2019t appear until film three, we were working together [starting in] September 2017.\u00a0 People think it\u2019s an exaggeration or some kind of marketing hook or something, but when we talk about the Avatar family, there\u2019s a family you see in the film, but there\u2019s a family behind the lens or behind the screen that\u2019s us working together over a period of years and in respect and love and in the joyfulness of the craft. And that means a lot to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It carries into the performances, which carry into the story, and eventually hits the screen. That\u2019s why Avatar: Fire and Ash is almost certain to wow audiences with a trip to Pandora once again.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Navi might be tall, skinny, and blue, but they\u2019ve still got problems. Problems that you and I can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[47050,156,47052,409,111,139,69,6817,68360],"class_list":{"0":"post-175881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-james-cameron","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-sam-worthington","16":"tag-sigourney-weaver"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}