Avatar Producer Jon Landau Confirms That The Franchise Will Eventually Visit Earth
After watching the first two Avatar films and falling in love with the world of Pandora, one can't help but wonder: what's Earth like in this universe? Outside of some deleted scenes from the first film, we don't get to see much of it. We do, however, get to hear about it from the human characters, and it doesn't sound great.
"The Earth is dying," said Edie Falco's character in the second film, which is the main reason the sky people have come back to stir up trouble on Pandora. Earth has gotten so bad that humanity thinks its best option is to take over another already-inhabited planet. In an interview with io9, producer John Landau has confirmed an earlier statement by Cameron that the series eventually plans to show us more of Earth. It's just not going to be in "Avatar 3," or "Avatar 4" for that matter.
"I wasn't going to talk about it, but I've now subsequently heard that Jim has talked about it a little bit," Landau explained. "In movie five there is a section of the story where we go to Earth. And we go to it to open people's eyes, open Neytiri's eyes, to what exists on Earth."
Letting the Na'vi see Earth
By the sound of it, "Avatar 5" will feature Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) getting to see life on Earth and gaining a larger understanding of what humanity is like. In the first two movies, most of her interactions with humans have been pretty terrible; they're constantly invading her land and causing war with her people. Neytiri doesn't even seem completely able to trust Spider (Jack Champion), the human child the family adopts at the end of "Way of Water." Presumably, her already-complicated relationship with the sky people is only going to get more complex as the movies go on.
"Just like you're defined by the choices you make in life, not all humans are bad," Landau said. "Not all Na'vi are good. And that's the case here on Earth. And we want to expose Neytiri to that."
Understandably, neither Landau nor Cameron have gone into much detail about "Avatar 5" beyond this information, preferring instead to talk about the more relevant "Avatar 3." We don't know exactly how Neytiri will get to see what life on Earth is like, either; will she be walking amongst Earth's denizens in her natural body, or could the original premise of the series get flipped around and we'll get to see Neytiri in a human Avatar? We'll have to wait until 2028 (at the earliest) before we can find out.
Another thing we've learned
Perhaps the most interesting information from Landau's quote is the casual mention of Neytiri still being alive in the fifth movie. Although it's certainly possible the story will change in the years to come, as of now it seems like the writers have no intention of killing the character off. Maybe that doesn't sound like huge news, but considering how some fans were disappointed by Neytiri's lessened presence in the sequel, it's seemed more than possible that the "Avatar" sequels would be all about the new generation of Sully kids taking up more and more focus.
Instead, Landau's comments seem like a clear indicator that not only will Neytiri still be around in the fifth film, but she'll still be a major figure in the narrative. Taking the series to Earth might sound like a questionable move for the series — it would require moving away from the exciting, colorful world of Pandora, which is currently these movies' main appeal — but for fans of Neytiri specifically, it's just nice to know she's not going away any time soon.