After revealing the official title of Avatar 3 at D23 last week, director James Cameron spoke with Entertainment Weekly to explain the meaning behind Avatar: Fire and Ash.

“It took a long time to come up with a title that I felt resonated with what’s in the film,” Cameron said. “I don’t think I could say too much about it until you actually see the film and you see what it means, but if you think of fire as hatred, anger, violence, that sort of thing, and ash is the aftermath. So what’s the aftermath? Grief, loss, right? And then what does that cause in the future? More violence, more anger, more hatred. It’s a vicious cycle. So that’s the thinking.“

Although Fire and Ash leads one to think of apocalyptic imagery, Cameron wouldn’t necessarily call it a dark film. “I think it goes to darker places than the previous ones did, but it’s still obviously this open, glorious, grand adventure, which is what we aspire to do every time we set out,” Cameron explained. “But we’re not afraid to go into the dark places of our characters, which I think is also good. I think that’s also what people really feel they want when they get to know a character well, either through a series or whatever it is that they follow. They want to know more. They want to know more about them, find out what their limits are, so to speak. And we do that.“

The sequel will also introduce another biome of Pandora, where the “aggressive, volcanic race” of Na’vi, known as the Ash People, reside. Oona Chaplin plays Varang, the leader of the Ash People.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is currently set for a December 19, 2025 release, followed by Avatar 4 on December 21, 2029 and Avatar 5 on December 18, 2031. Cameron even has ideas for a potential Avatar 6 and 7, but that all depends on if the demand for the franchise is still there., “There’ll be just far enough apart that they remain events, hopefully, in the lives of fans, of people who want to follow us, but not so far apart that it’s like there’s a generational difference between one movie,” Cameron said. “We’re fortunate we survived that, right? We got over that hurdle. So now we believe it’s going to come at the right pacing.“

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