Two films into a planned five-film franchise, the world of Avatar is already one of the boldest and most imaginative examples of on-screen worldbuilding this side of George Lucas’ Star Wars. The first film introduces us to Pandora, the vibrant exomoon with a lush and interconnected ecosystem, and its indigenous humanoids known as the Na’vi. Specifically, the Omatikaya clan, a tribe of tall, intelligent blue people who nurture their connection with the goddess Eywa and explore the treetops and skies. But the film’s sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, pivots us from the trees to the oceans, with the seafaring Metkayina clan opening the world to a whole new ecosystem.
With Avatar 3, reportedly called The Seed Bearer, once again audiences will get to meet new Pandoran tribes. But it’s not just one new Na’vi clan being introduced in Avatar 3, it’s two.
James Cameron has said that “Avatar 3” will explore fire (much as The Way of Water explored the Pandoran seas), introducing audiences to the Ash People, a clan who Cameron implies will serve a more antagonistic role than those we’ve met before. But at a special event James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment attended by Inverse, producer Jon Landau revealed that “we’re going to meet at least two clans in the next movie.”
In celebration of the upcoming digital release of Avatar: The Way of Water, the team behind Avatar dug into everything around the sequel’s technological innovation and increasingly expansive worldbuilding. At the event, producer Jon Landau revealed some key details about the long-awaited third entry.
Landau revealed that each of the franchise’s upcoming films is intended to be its own “standalone film,” where in “each movie, we introduce new biomes and new cultures, and because we’re introducing new cultures, we have new characters.” He clarified that “just because we’re introducing a new one doesn’t mean we’ve lost an old one, they will stay with us,” and proceeded to tease what’s to come when Avatar: The Seed Bearer hits theaters next year. In addition to the two clans introduced in the next Avatar, the franchise will expand “culturally, and go on and on as we continue.”
Another thing that might intrigue Avatar: The Way of Water fans about subsequent films is that, similar to how the Metkayina clan boasts distinct physical evolutionary adaptations for their ecosystem, we will see more physical adaptations to different environments as the series moves along.
“I'm not going to tell you where we're going to see different physical [features],” Landau explained, but “there will be different physical realizations of cultures on Pandora as we go through the series,” continuing the tradition of showing varied cultures’ environmental adaptability. Additionally, in subsequent films “there [are] also going to be, as we did with the Metkayina and the Omatikaya, different skin colors, because that's part of our world, [and] we look at what we're doing as a metaphor for our world.”
Fans will have to wait until 2024 to meet these new clans and experience these new Pandoran locales, but you can get a deeper window into the worldbuilding of Avatar: The Way of Water starting with its special features-packed digital release this week.
