Avatar: Fire And Ash Trailer Teases The Franchise's Biggest Change Yet
Along came a Spider.
The concept of Avatar — behind the Na’vi, behind the environmentalism allegory, and behind the gorgeous visual effects — is a story of humans controlling alien “avatars” so they can navigate an exotic but hostile planet. Using Avatars allows humans to breathe the atmosphere and co-exist with the native species, but there are low-tech options too. Humans can also explore Pandora while using a mask to breathe, something we saw Spider do throughout Avatar: The Way of Water.
Now, in the latest trailer for James Cameron’s third Avatar movie, Avatar: Fire and Ash, it appears that there’s a secret third option for humans, and it could completely eliminate the need for avatars. Check it out below.
There’s a lot happening in this trailer, but one of its biggest reveals may be hiding in plain sight. Jake Sully asks, “What if every human being could live here without a mask?” Immediately after, we see Spider walking on what is presumably Pandora without a mask. How is this possible? Soon after this shot, we see Spider with Kiri, and he uses what seems to be a queue or “kuri,” the tendril the Na’vi use to form a connection with nature and each other, to link with a fish.
Spider has lived among the Na’vi for a while now, but biologically, he’s a human, which is why he’s worn a mask this entire time. So why can he suddenly do this? Earlier in the trailer, we see an unconscious Spider as glowing tendrils crawl up his body and into his nose. Could this be a new procedure that gives him the Na’vi’s ability to breathe Pandora’s air?
Is this a glimpse at Spider becoming a Na’vi hybrid?
If so, this opens up an entirely new possibility for Pandora. Colonization has always been a threat to the Na’vi, but a way for humans to live on Pandora just as easily as they do could completely change the balance of power. It’s certainly exciting for Spider, but it opens the Na’vi up to a brand new threat. It’s possible the procedure requires a degree of help from the Na’vi, but that help could always be coerced.
More than a decade after Avatar first hit movie screens, it looks like the avatars themselves are becoming defunct. We’ll find out in a few months if this causes further problems for Pandora, but at the very least, Spider can stop wearing that mask everywhere.
