I Had My Doubts About A Rumored Direction For The Avatar Franchise, But I’ve Totally Changed My Mind After Seeing Fire And Ash

Spoiler Warning: The following article contains major spoilers for Avatar: Fire and Ash. If you’ve yet to watch the new sci-fi movie, please return after doing so.

Outside of a deleted scene from the first movie, the Avatar franchise has primarily taken place on the lush moon of Pandora, where the Na’vi, all kinds of imaginative creatures, and unbelievable landscapes can be found. Ever since I first heard years ago that there were plans for the action to move over to Earth later in the franchise, I’ve been in the camp of folks who want nothing of it. Well, that was until I saw Avatar: Fire and Ash.

There’s a sequence in James Cameron’s hotly anticipated 2025 movie that completely changed my mind when it comes to the prospect of Jake Sully going back to Earth before the franchise draws to a close. I’m not talking about the big sea battle, or the latest adventure from an un-killable Quaritch, but instead that eye-popping and action-packed Resources Development Administration (RDA) sequence. Let me explain…

So What Are These Avatar On Earth Rumors?

There have been a lot of rumors, theories, and speculation about the Avatar franchise going over to the land of the humans, and that dreaded RDA, at some point in the future. These have been going around for a few years now, but seem to start with comments made by the late Jon Landau, James Cameron’s longtime producer, creative partner, and friend, when he spoke with Gizmodo ahead of Avatar: The Way of Water’s 2022 release. As Landau put it:

These comments, while teasing a potential terrestrial future for the franchise down the road, didn’t reveal too much about where Avatar 5 (it still doesn’t have a subtitle despite rumors) would go storywise. Yeah, Neytiri going to Earth sounds promising, but not much else was revealed.

The Big RDA Base Sequence In Avatar: Fire & Ash Changed My Mind For One Major Reason

Here’s something to know about it: I love big, dirty, industrial set pieces on the big screen. I mean, some of the best action movies of all time have at least one big sequence in some kind of industrial zone. Hell, a lot of James Cameron’s best films (The Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day) have scenes in nitty, gritty, and hot-as-hell factories, bases, boiler rooms, foundries, etc. They look so unbelievably cool, and that, again, is the case for Fire and Ash.

Though the more colorful, fantastical, and otherworldly scenes of the Sully family flying around Pandora on beasts, and merchants in hot air balloons looked incredible (seriously, Cameron is in a league of his own), the big mission to rescue Jake and Spyder after they were captured by the RDA is what I live for.

Throughout the sequence, I kept thinking to myself, “Ok, let’s get this franchise to a polluted Earth on the brink of destruction,” and that feeling just never went away. I mean, just imagine an entire movie (or portion of a movie) where we’re back on a futuristic Earth where everything has gone to hell. It’d be so dirty, so grounded, so hot. Big machines, bigger vehicles, power-loaders, you name it. I want to see it.

I Also Want To See How Humans On Earth React To The Na’vi

The whole “James Cameron building a dirty and lived-in Earth” is the main reason I wouldn’t mind for those Avatar 5 rumors to be true, but it’s not the only aspect of this that has me hyped. For the first time in the franchise, Fire and Ash showed how humans outside of the upper echelon of the RDA think about Jake Sully, the man they call a traitor for living with the Na’vi.

Throughout the extended sequence, the low-level factory grunts, scientists, and general RDA support staff looked at Jake (who was confined to a glass enclosure in the middle of the compound) like they were watching an old-timey freak show. They had this morbid curiosity and fascination with man-turned-Na’vi, and it added another layer to the overall story. To see that expanded, especially with the Na’vi equally freaking out on Earth and being confused by the technologically advanced world, would be something.

Billboards, massive screens, text messages on those nifty see-through phones blasting propaganda from the RDA on a massive scale would create such a frenzied moment that I really think would push the franchise in a new direction.

Remember the Captain America: The First Avenger ending where Steve Rogers discovers he’s in the 21st century while standing in a frenzied Times Square? Well, I imagine it’d be like that times 3,000.

Now I Really Want Avatar 5 (And The Rest Of The Movies) To Happen

Despite the first two movies being two of the biggest box office winners of all time, there seems to be some trepidation when it comes to the planned fourth and fifth Avatar movies. I mean, it’s at the point where Cameron himself is saying Fire and Ash needs to be uber-successful for the later films to be made. Hopefully, all this worry is for nothing, and these movies actually end up happening. I need to see what Cameron’s version of a futuristic Earth looks like. Not only that, but I also want to see where the franchise goes after some major story points were introduced in the most recent release.

I mean, Fire and Ash did receive a Golden Globe nomination for “Cinematic and Box Office Achievement” a little less than two weeks before its debut, so maybe insiders think this is going to be another $2 billion release for the franchise. I guess I’ll just have to be patient and wait and see…

Hopefully, Avatar: Fire and Ash goes on to make a ton of cash at the box office, and the franchise continues at least until we get to see what happens with the Na’vi on Earth.