Summary

• The title of Avatar 3 hints at a dark future for Pandora, with fire Na'vi adding conflict to the series.
• Jake Sully's Dream Hunt vision may come true in Avatar 3, with the potential destruction of Pandora.
• The Fire and Ash theme in Avatar 3 could bring moral complexity to the conflict between Na'vi and RDA.

Although Avatar 3's plot can pick up where it left off.

Director James Cameron recently revealed that Avatar 3 will be titled Avatar: Fire and Ash, a decision that won’t come as a major surprise to anyone following news of the sequel. Cameron had already hinted that Avatar: Fire and Ash would introduce fire Na’vi much like Avatar: The Way of Water first unveiled the Metakyina, or water Na’vi. These fire Na’vi promise to introduce more conflict to the series, with Cameron stating that they would reveal a dark side of the Na’vi not seen in earlier movies. However, this is not necessarily where the movie’s moniker “Fire and Ash” comes from.

Avatar: Fire And Ash Could See Pandora Burned Down (Like Jake's Dream Hunt Vision)

Jake Sully Saw Endless Fires During Avatar’s Deleted “Dream Hunt” Scene

It seems that Jake Sully's Dream Hunt premonitions will come true despite the original Avatar cutting this pivotal scene before its release. In Avatar’s deleted Dream Hunt sequence, Jake Sully envisioned Pandora engulfed in flames by the RDA’s attacks. The Dream Hunt was a hallucinogenic vision quest that the Na’vi undertook as a coming-of-age ritual, and Jake risked his life to access a vision of the Na’vi home world ablaze. This compelled him to side with the Na’vi against the RDA, and Avatar: The Way of Water brought back the scene’s imagery in its opening scenes.

The purpose of the Dream Hunt is to gain a glimpse of one’s future.

Now, Avatar 3’s story looks set to properly pay off Jake’s missing vision. This would make sense since the purpose of the Dream Hunt is to gain a glimpse of one’s future and, judging by Avatar: The Way of Water’s ending, Jake will remain in conflict with the RDA in the sequel. What is less clear is whether “Fire and Ash” refers to the state in which the RDA left Jake’s former home. In Avatar: The Way of Water, the Sully family move to the Metkayina’s seaside home so they can stop the RDA from attacking the Omatikaya clan’s village.

Avatar's Dream Hunt Was Partially Paid Off In The Way Of Water

The RDA’s Return Involved Torching Pandoras' Forests

This appears to temporarily succeed in distracting the human invaders, but the sequel's ending sees the RDA finally track them down. Now, Avatar: Fire and Ash must pay off this plot by explaining whether the burning forests that Jake saw were the Omatikaya clan’s home. Avatar: The Way of Water’s opening scene paid off part of Jake’s Dream Hunt vision from Avatar when the sequel depicted the RDA’s return via a sequence where Pandoran forests and their inhabitants were indiscriminately burned by spacecraft engines. Despite this, Avatar 3’s Jake Sully story should bring the character’s vision closer to home.

Proving that Jake was always destined to take over the Omatikaya clan would make his potential death even more impactful.

Avatar: Fire and Ash should reveal that Jake saw the Omatikaya clan’s village burning in his Dream Hunt for two reasons. For one thing, this would explain why Jake was selected to lead the clan since he clearly has a destiny beyond his control. For another, proving that Jake was always destined to take over the Omatikaya clan would make his potential death even more impactful. Avatar: The Way of Water’s Jack Champion hinted that the sequel has a bombshell twist when he itted in a HollywoodReporter interview that a certain moment in the script left him speechless. This could be Jake’s death.

Which Faction Is The Real Threat? The RDA Or Avatar 3's Fire Clan

The Hero's Family Could Fall Apart In This Follow-up

Fans can also read the title Fire and Ash as implying that the ash was the aftermath of Neteyam’s death and the fire was the internal conflict left blazing in the Sully family. When Neytiri discovers that Spider secretly saved his father, Miles Quaritch, despite the RDA’s forces killing Neteyam, she is likely to double down on her efforts to wipe out the human invaders. This will undoubtedly strain Spider’s relationship with the Sully children, making Neytiri’s Avatar 3 subplot pivotal to the sequel’s story. Meanwhile, the Fire Clan’s increasingly violent tactics may complicate the franchise’s morality.

The Na’vi are clearly right to defend themselves against the human invaders, and Avatar: The Way of Water’s opening scene unambiguously depicts Jake’s attack on a supply train as a heroic moment of resistance. However, Cameron's hints that the fire Na’vi are less heroic may make the conflict more morally complex. The Fire Clan may destroy part of Pandora in Avatar 3: Fire and Ash and the movie’s title might refer to the state the planet is left in after both parties, during their conflict, burn down parts of Pandora’s precious forest in their attempts to defeat each other.

Avatar 3 Could Revisit The Original Movie's Deleted Dream Hunt Idea

Avatar 3 May Prove The RDA Aren’t Pandora’s Only Destructive Force

Avatar’s missing Dream Hunt scene could be read as Jake’s prescient warning about the RDA’s capacity for destruction, but it may also be seen as a warning of the Na’vi’s potential for the same. In trying to preserve their way of life, the Na’vi could end up inadvertently destroying the planet they treasure. If Avatar 3’s Fire Clan launch an unprovoked attack on the RDA, this may backfire and wipe out their own territory in a disastrous move that Jake unknowingly predicted. This would make the missing scene even more significant in of the franchise’s canon.

Avatar: Fire and Ash’s title implies that the series may revisit the evocative imagery of the Dream Hunt scene.

Avatar: The Way of Water’s opening scene already borrowed from the Dream Hunt sequence’s symbolism, despite the scene being cut from Avatar’s finished edit. Now, Avatar: Fire and Ash’s title implies that the series may revisit the evocative imagery of the Dream Hunt scene and ground it in the story of the series. Avatar: Fire and Ash might see the RDA burn down Pandora or the Fire Clan unknowingly do the same. Either way, Jake’s best missing scene from 2009’s Avatar could make a lot more sense by the time Avatar 3’s story ends.