5 Important Details We Just Learned From The Avatar: Fire And Ash Trailer

I'd ask if we're ready to step back into the world of Pandora, but some of us never even left in the first place. "Avatar: Fire and Ash" is scheduled to drop at the end of 2025, three years after "The Way of Water" hit theaters and subsequently broke box office records like never before — or, at least, not since the original rewrote the history books back in 2009. After listening to visionary James Cameron hype up his threequel for months and months (and months), we've finally received our first look at the official trailer ... along with the hints and teases of everything we can expect from the next stage of this epic, otherworldly family saga.

If Cameron is destined to spend the rest of his career exploring the struggles of the extraterrestrial Na'vi in their never-ending fight against oppressive humans, well, luckily, all that time and money appear to have been well worth it. Despite clocking in at well over two minutes, the "Fire and Ash" trailer doesn't actually give away a ton of plot-focused information on the surface. We're quickly reintroduced to star-crossed power couple Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), but the footage also reminds us that this is a true ensemble story. Everyone from Lo'ak (Britain Dalton) to Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) to Spider (Jack Champion) to the dastardly Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) are all present and accounted for, with many more certain to play significant roles. But what details can we glean about the overall arc of the film?

Naturally, fans are already putting the puzzle pieces together in "Fire and Ash," and part of the picture is starting to come into focus. With plenty of time to kill before the blockbuster debuts worldwide this December, what better way to pass the time than by breaking down every major reveal? Here are our five biggest takeaways from the trailer.

Never before has the idea that "Good things come to those who wait" felt more accurate than it does here. Plenty of online memes have grown around Matt Reeves' "The Batman" and the unbearably long wait for "Part II." And, okay, I suppose "A Song of Ice and Fire" has the market cornered in terms of the longest wait for a sequel, considering that the perpetually-overdue "The Winds of Winter" remains unreleased with no release date on the horizon. But maybe "Avatar" fans are a close runner-up. It took an unfathomable 13 years for our first return visit to Pandora, which means "Fire and Ash" will have debuted over a decade and a half after the original. But here's the good news: James Cameron's army of animators and VFX artists have spent the interim honing their craft and delivering what looks like some of the best, most convincing visuals we've ever seen.

I know, I know, this will now be the third time we've said this very same thing after "Avatar" and "Avatar: The Way of Water" ... but, believe it or not, it remains true every single time. The "Fire and Ash" footage might be light on actual plot, but it fully makes up for that through the power of imagery. Right from the opening moments of a pair of banshee-riding Na'vi soaring amid Pandora's floating rock formations, the trailer puts awe and spectacle at the forefront. The colors are vivid, the wholly-CGI environments are stunning, and even the simplest of establishing shots makes the mind reel if one thinks about it too long. Practically every single pixel in every single frame is a visual effect, yet never once does it feel anything less than 100% convincing to our brains.

This creative team all but laughs in the face of conventional wisdom. Hide the VFX with scenes set at night? Nope, here are entire sequences in broad daylight! Don't rely too much on mo-cap characters? Too bad, we filmed entire two-hander conversations filled with close-ups showcasing the tiniest details of sweat, the subtlest of facial movements, and even specks of bioluminescence. Avoid rendering water in CGI at all costs? Enjoy this money shot of everyone's favorite space whale, Payakan, once again f***ing s*** up in the open seas. And this is just the trailer, folks. We simply are not ready.

Hmm, maybe we spoke a little too soon about the lack of plot details here. While the broad strokes remain under wraps for now, it's eminently possible to connect some dots based on the little we've seen. Obviously, we know that the ocean-based clan of Na'vi known as the Metkayina remains a focal point, especially since they accepted the Sully family as one of their own by the end of "The Way of Water." We can also guess that the militant Colonel Quaritch, now inhabiting the avatar body of the enemy he so violently hated in the first film, will continue to be Jake Sully's chief rival and exert as much influence as he can on his estranged son Spider. But eagle-eyed viewers can now take an educated guess as to how exactly he (and another group of Na'vi) factors into the story this time around.

It's easy to miss amid all the glorious images, but a close look at the scenes set in the imposing Ash People village reveals Quaritch going native ... so to speak. About 40 seconds in, one shot of a massive volcano spewing lava in the background reveals the silhouette of a Na'vi figure trudging alongside a nearby ridge. That's none other than Quaritch, making what seems like a one-man journey to the mysterious, antagonistic, fire-based Mangkwan Clan. This is quickly confirmed in another shot depicting the good Colonel from behind, holding up his arms in surrender as he approaches the wary village and comes face to face with Oona Chaplin's clan leader Varang. What mischief could he potentially be getting up to? Well, maybe it has something to do with Quaritch later returning with an army at his back.

Throughout our history, countless colonizing invaders have recruited local indigenous groups to help fight against their own people — James Cameron is likely putting a sci-fi spin on this very same idea. Quaritch instigating an alliance between the Mangkwan Clan and the military forces of the Resources Development Administration would certainly constitute a major threat to the rest of Pandora. And, as we soon discover, the Ash People alone could pose enough danger all on their own.

Did ... did we just see a fire-bending character in the wrong "Avatar" franchise? Much has been made of the obvious similarities between James Cameron's sci-fi world and the animated "Avatar: The Last Airbender" franchise, but one very specific shot in the trailer will likely kick off a whole new round of good ol' fashioned discourse. Obviously, the three movies thus far have all focused on one particular element: earth, water, and now fire. (Yes, before you ask, "Fire and Ash" also features the air-based Tlalim Clan that we glimpse flying overhead several times throughout the trailer.) But beyond a few brief moments of spirituality, as when the goddess Ewya brought Sully back from certain death in his Avatar form, very little of this has been portrayed as overtly magical or supernatural.

But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. (Come on, you knew I had to do it.) After we see Varang emerging from her tent and presumably meeting Quaritch for the first time, we're shown a close-up of one of the Mangkwan Clan members manipulating a tiny flicker of flame with their fingers. Is this a dream sequence, a heightened moment not meant to be taken literally, or something else entirely? We're betting on that last one, as the Ash People's connection with whatever deity they follow seems to have imbued them with the ability to actually control fire. This moment is followed by an action shot of fiery arrows raining all around young heroes Spider, Lo'ak, and others in a forest setting, cut together in a way that implies an attack by the Mangkwan Clan. If they're able to channel their inner Zuko and wield fire as a weapon of their own, well, the stakes might've just been raised even higher.

Either way, the Ash People are unlike any other culture we've seen on Pandora before, and something tells us it's only a matter of time before Jake Sully finds this out to his peril.

James Cameron has directed several of the most legendary leading ladies in cinema history over the decades, but don't let Neytiri fly under the radar. She's come a long way from the stock native character who ultimately falls for Jake Sully's charms in the 2009 film. She's since established herself as a fearsome warrior, a formidable leader, and a fiercely devoted mother. "The Way of Water" gave her some of her most compelling material yet, though it culminated in tragedy. In the climactic battle sequence, the death of Jake and Neytiri's eldest son, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), marks a point of no return for the family. Jake reverts back to his military training, holding his loved ones at an emotional distance, but Neytiri is the one who has something snap deep inside. Her rage at her loss puts her on a shockingly dark path, to the point where she nearly murders Spider in cold-blooded revenge to get back at Quaritch.

She ends the sequel processing her grief during the solemn funeral for Neteyam, but time can't heal all wounds. In the "Fire and Ash" trailer, one specific exchange between husband and wife gives us all the context we need for what's to come. In a highly-charged sequence, we see Sully warn Neytiri, "You cannot live like this, baby — in hate!" Her wordless, shocked reaction suggests she's not too far gone yet, but this certainly appears to be a loose thread that the threequel will continue to explore. For a franchise that has been accused of playing through all the usual tropes, it was probably inevitable for us to get to the point of heroes urging each other not to lower themselves to the level of their enemies. If even Neytiri, always so in tune with Pandora's natural world, can succumb to her basest instincts and reject her humanity (so to speak), what hope is there for anyone else? It would be the most quintessential Cameron move ever to hang much of the tension and drama of "Fire and Ash" on this central thematic question.

We've now entered the tinfoil-hat conspiracy portion of the program, ladies and gentlemen. As alluded to earlier in this article, the "Avatar" films have largely avoided stepping foot into full-blown spiritual territory. There have been several suggestions and implications of some greater force at work, guiding the characters along their paths and setting the world of Pandora apart from any other place. But by and large, the franchise has resisted the notion of actually confirming whether the deity of this alien moon, known as the All-Mother Ewya, is actually something more than just a biological force connecting every living thing on the surface. Could that finally be changing in "Fire and Ash"?

This one requires a little more legwork than anything else discussed to this point, which is why we saved this for last. You may remember that in "The Way of Water," the exact parentage of young Kiri is left dangling in the air. The circumstances surrounding the birth of the biological daughter of Dr. Grace Augustine (also played by Sigourney Weaver) hasn't been resolved just yet, leading many to believe that this is building towards a truly supernatural reveal. Between her unusually strong connection to nature and her general isolation that alienates her from others, it feels like all signs are pointing to the idea of Ewya herself being responsible for Kiri's creation. The natural next step, then, would be for "Fire and Ash" to finally put a face and a voice to the name we've heard over and over again since the original "Avatar."

What makes us think this could be a possibility? Take the very last line of the trailer, where Varang spits out one last threat towards what seems to be a captive Kiri, "Your goddess has no dominion here." Naturally, we're now inclined to believe that the exact opposite will now happen. These movies have always delivered a karmic sense of justice to its main villains, and nothing would feel more fitting than seeing the Ewya-denying Varang receive her ultimate comeuppance — not physically, but spiritually. James Cameron, it's time: Let's get truly weird and introduce the goddess Ewya as a living, breathing, corporeal entity.

"Avatar: Fire and Ash" hits theaters December 19, 2025.