The last time we caught up with the Sully family in 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, they were met with tragedy. One of Neytiri and Jake’s children, Neteyam, is killed in the third act while trying to rescue his siblings from Quaritch. In Avatar: Fire And Ash, the fallout of this is explored, particularly through Neytiri and Jake’s relationship. Sam Worthington previously teased a “division” that pops up between them, and I spoke to Zoe Saldaña about it.
In Fire And Ash, the core of Neytiri and Jake’s big conflict lies in if they are going to continue to welcome Spider into their family or cast him out following his ability to breathe on Pandora – which fans have been getting heated about since the plotline was revealed in a trailer. Here’s what Saldaña told us about Neytiri’s arc this movie around:
I don't want to ever feel that amount of hatred in my heart towards anybody. It doesn't matter how much evil they may inflict, that's their choice. And, I just, I choose to not allow hate to poison me. And it has poisoned her and let's face it, Neytiri’s a racist and she just loses sight because of this blind fury that she has.
During CinemaBlend’s conversation with the Avatar star, Saldaña discussed exploring Neytiri’s hate toward humans further this time around, and it wasn’t an easy part of the character’s journey for her to delve into. As she continued:
She loses sight that the person that she loves the most and respects the most in her life is her husband. And, he is human. He's a sky person. And, I think it takes a lot of courage for Jake to be honest with her and to force her even knowing that she is broken that he knows that she needs to face this 'cause he sees in the direction that she's heading and I think it's much more familiar to him where Neytiri is heading than, than for Neytiri herself. So, it was powerful and I think that we really needed to go there.
In The Way Of Water, we definitely see some of this when Neytiri grabs Spider and threatens to kill him as leverage from Quaritch despite the human character being part of her family since he was a baby. The character certainly has seen a lot of “evil” from humans over the years, from them trying to colonize over the planet, to killing other Na’vi and her own son. But as Saldaña pointed out, she doesn’t think that gives her the right to let her anger control her.
Saldaña suggests Neytiri is a racist because she has taken such a heightened antagonistic approach toward humans. The actress also told us this about playing that role:
I can't tell you enough how great it was to also take her off every evening and just put her on the side and just go home without her weight on me.
In addition to this aspect of Fire And Ash, Jake and Neytiri will also come across a new Na’vi clan led by a fierce leader named Varang. Quaritch is also back at it trying to hunt down Jake since he’s thought of as a criminal of Earth. The Sully family kids Lo’ak, Kiri and Tuk will also be dealing with the grief of their brother’s death.
You can see how Neytiri’s character goes from here when Avatar: Fire And Ash debuts in theaters on December 19. And check out what James Cameron told us about his current thoughts on Avatar 4 and 5 here on CinemaBlend.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
