Avatar 3’s ‘Ash Clan’ Has ‘Gone Through An Incredible Hardship’, Says James Cameron

Who’s ready to return to Pandora? Across Avatar and its belated follow-up Avatar: The Way Of Water, cinematic master James Cameron has taken audiences into the lush jungles, crystal waters, and serene skies of the verdant Na’vi moon – and at the end of 2025 he’s going to do it all over again with the third instalment in the series, Avatar: Fire And Ash. The next chapter of the Sully story will take Jake and Neytiri’s family into uncharted territory, meeting a fresh batch of Na’vi with their own relationship to the land – and things might not go as swimmingly as they (eventually) did with The Way Of Water’s ocean-loving Metkayina.

The fresh issue of Empire features a brand fresh look at the next Avatar movie – along with a major fresh James Cameron interview, all part of our Path To Pandora, bringing you fresh Avatar updates across every single Empire issue of 2025. This month, that includes your best look yet at concept art from the third film – including the above piece, introducing the ‘Ash Clan’ and their fearsome figurehead. “Varang is the leader of a people who have gone through an incredible hardship. She’s hardened by that,” Cameron tells Empire of that central figure. “She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil,” he teases. “One thing we wanted to do in this film is not be black-and-white simplistic.” For once, it might not just be the human-led RDA bringing the ruckus. “We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm,” Cameron explains.

Varang is played by Oona Chaplin, whose embodiment of her, Cameron says, “is so good that I didn’t quite appreciate how good her performance is until we got the Wētā animation back.” Don’t expect many ‘I see you’s between her and Jake. “She’s an enemy, an adversarial character,” notes Cameron, “but [Chaplin] makes her feel so real and alive.”

Bringing a breath of fresh air, too, will be the Wind Traders – see above – who corral gigantic Pandoran creatures to soar among the clouds. “They’re nomadic traders, equivalent to the camel caravans of the Spice Road back in the Middle Ages,” Cameron explains. “And you know, they’re just fun. Like all Na’vi, they live in a symbiosis with their creatures.” Get ready to take to the skies in an all-new way. “If you’ve got any nautical blood in your veins, you’ll want to be on [their] ship,” promises Cameron. All aboard!

Read the full James Cameron interview about the fresh Avatar film in Empire‘s 28 Years Later issue, on sale Thursday 16 January. Order a copy online here. The Path To Pandora continues every month in Empire – subscribe here to get the magazine every month and hear the latest Na’vi news. Avatar: Fire And Ash comes to UK cinemas from 19 December.