As Avatar: Fire and Ash makes its way to cinemas this month, James Cameron has talked about the reasons behind the saga's enduring success worldwide. For the filmmaker, it's all about the "human experience", even if the story is dominated by blue aliens in a faraway planet named Pandora.
"In the writing process and the imagining of the story, I want to deal with things that are kind of universal in human experience," Cameron said at an Avatar 3 press conference attended by GamesRadar+. "Family, identity, purpose, duty to your family, duty to your community. ‘Where do I belong? And once I decide or I find where I belong, how do I earn their respect at my place?’
"That was Jake's journey in the first film and now we're seeing the children coming up and trying to find their place in a world when they're mixed race children, right? Mom is 100% Na’vi, dyed in the wool traditionalist. Dad is from another star system. But these are fundamental problems that people feel all around the world. And with the new film, we're dealing with a refugee family, essentially immigrants, displaced. People can relate to that."
Cameron added: "With the Avatar films, we're always trying to deal with very, very human, relatable themes, because it grounds this experience that takes place in this other fantastic world. It pulls it down in ways that are relatable."
Following Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, the third Avatar film follows Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their family a year after Neteyam's death as they deal with grief and face a new Na'vi tribe known as the Ash People.
The film has received rave first reactions, calling it "pure blockbuster filmmaking at its finest" and "the best one yet" in the franchise. Has Cameron yet another box office hit on his hands?
Avatar: Fire and Ash arrives in theaters on December 19. In the meantime, check out our guide to the rest of the best upcoming movies on the way in 2025 and beyond.
