Latest news with #Na'vi
Newsweek
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Reveals Fiery First Look at Zoe Saldana
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors "Avatar: The Way of Water" ended tragically for the heroes, with Jake Sully and Neytiri's son Neteyam killed. That death understandably sent Neytiri into a rage the likes of which we'd never seen from her before, and our first look at the character in "Avatar: Fire and Ash" shows that her anger hasn't worn off. You can see the first look image, provided by Empire, below. First look at Neytiri in 'AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH' (Source: — DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) May 2, 2025 Read More: Documentary Details the Shocking Rise of Keanu Reeves 'John Wick' Series "That pain is seamlessly followed up on," Neytiri actress Zoe Saldaña told Empire. "And because it doesn't really have anywhere to go, and doesn't go away, rage can also come from it. [The Sullys] are going to be tested as a family. Not only would everything that's happening compel her to question the bond she has with her husband, but also her bond with herself, her people, her land, and the way the Na'vi are. She's going to question everything." Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri in "Avatar: The Way of Water". Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri in "Avatar: The Way of Water". 20th Century Studios As full of rage and dangerous as Neytiri becomes, Saldaña says she will "meet her match" in "Avatar: Fire and Ash". Her match is Varang, leader of the Mangkwan Ash clan. According to James Cameron, back in 2021, we should all be thanking whatever the Na'vi worship that we even have the chance to see "Avatar: Fire and Ash". At the time, Cameron was saying that "Avatar: The Way of Water" would need to make $2 billion just to break even. He's since walked back those comments a bit, even though the sequel succeeded in taking in $2.3 billion. As tragic an ending as "Avatar: The Way of Water" gave us, "Avatar: Fire and Ash" may force even more tears out of us if James Cameron's wife is any judge. In March, Cameron told Empire, "My wife watched the whole thing from end to end — she had kept herself away from it and I wasn't showing her bits and pieces as we went along. This was December 22nd. She bawled for four hours. She kept trying to get her s--t back together so she could tell me specific reactions, and then she'd just tear up and start crying again. Finally, I'm like, 'Honey, I've got to go to bed. Sorry, we'll talk about it some other time.'" "Avatar: Fire and Ash" releases in theaters Dec. 19, 2025. More Movies: 'Now You See Me 3' Releases Star-Studded Trailer Dwayne Johnson Transforms Into UFC Legend in 'Smashing Machine' Trailer
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Can Predator: Badlands finally prove a shared universe with Alien was a good idea?
Somewhere out there in the multiverse is a movie saga in which all great dystopian sci-fi is united under one roof: a place where Xenomorphs stalk Na'vi for sport and Predators quote Rutger Hauer like they've just discovered existential rain. Meanwhile, here's the new trailer for Predator: Badlands, which at least brings two of these venerable 20th Century Fox biomes of interstellar dread back together for the first time since those wonderful Alien vs Predator films from the noughties – because we all remember how much we loved those (especially that one set in an Aztec pyramid under Antarctica) … The buzz in the blogosphere after this early glimpse at the film is that Elle Fanning's Thia is a Weyland-Yutani 'synthetic' – otherwise known as an android. This, of course, would be no shakes whatsoever if Badlands were an Alien movie, but is far more of a smack-bang-wallop geek moment because we are ostensibly watching a Predator film, albeit one that clearly takes place in a shared universe with Alien: Romulus, and every brooding, acid-spitting, pipe-clanging nightmare that went before it. For all we know, Thia's been manufactured by the Engineers, nurtured by David, and signed off by a mid-level corporate replicant with a clipboard and a God complex. The world's eyes just flipped silver, the milk-blood is flowing, and it's party time in the cryo-sarcophagus aisle of Space Ikea. Is Badlands the Suicide Squad of dark sci-fi flicks, with the long-running sci-fi bad guys now reimagined as the heroes of the piece? Quite possibly – if Suicide Squad had starred a mournful Predator and an android who looks like she dreams in piano chords and existential dread. We've seen decent synthetics before in the Alien movies – the kind of quietly noble humanoid machines that make you ashamed you ever doubted their essential humanity. But they've never really been the central protagonists (the closest we got is Romulus's traumatised teen colonist Andy). And we've certainly never seen a Predator movie focused on what appears to be an emo teenage member of the warrior clan who may or may not have been thrown out of his tribe for listening to too much My Chemical Romance and refusing to polish his skulls. Whatever you say about Badlands, it promises to avoid the chest-thumping fan-service of the AvP films. There are unlikely to be low-budget WWE-style wrestling antics in church basements and Predalien hybrids. It seems unlikely that, this time around, we'll be gifted pyramid floor plans designed by a committee of video game bosses. Instead it looks like we're going to get a sad, pensive android with abandonment issues, a sensitive but still quite angry Predator and a world on fire. All that's missing is a Xenomorph in therapy, perhaps trying to process its relationship with Ripley. The film is directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who has somehow managed to become the Predator whisperer for an entire generation of sci-fi horror nerds. After Prey (2022) – that elegant, slow-burning period piece about a Comanche warrior facing off against a proto-Predator in the 1700s – Trachtenberg proved that you can take this franchise in any direction. So why not swap out mud and muskets for volcanic badlands and a side-order of post-human malaise? The design work here is more than promising. The trailer shows off some very deliberate aesthetic overlap with Alien – including a Weyland-Yutani branded rover, Fanning's stark, David-adjacent appearance, and a fair bit of tech that looks suspiciously like it's one firmware update away from birthing a facehugger. It's all just canonical enough to make fans overanalyse every moment like this is the Rosetta Stone of space horror. The crossover potential here isn't new, of course. The Alien and Predator franchises have been dancing in the dark since 1990, when a Xenomorph skull first appeared on a Predator's trophy wall in Predator 2, launching a thousand fan theories and, eventually, a couple of studio-mandated mashups that nobody really asked for but everyone secretly watched anyway. The difference this time is tone. Badlands isn't going for spectacle. It's going for sadness. Existentialism. Vibes. And possibly a decent portion of the kind of teenage alien angst we all experience when it suddenly becomes apparent our honour-bound spacefaring culture doesn't recognise modding cloaking devices to play Death Cab for Cutie guitar solos as a valid rite of passage. In the age of cinematic universes, this kind of narrative cross-pollination feels less like a surprise and more like an inevitability. Through its purchase of 20th Century Fox, Disney now owns the rights to Alien, Predator, Avatar, The Simpsons and about 70% of your childhood nightmares. All that's missing is a single film where Bart Simpson lights a Xenomorph's fart on fire using a Predator's plasmacaster, before declaring himself the new king of Pandora. We're not there yet. But Badlands makes it all feel weirdly plausible. Sign up to Film Weekly Take a front seat at the cinema with our weekly email filled with all the latest news and all the movie action that matters after newsletter promotion
Express Tribune
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Avatar 3' clips unveiled for the first time
Fire and Ash will be over three hours long. Photo: File Evil Na'vi. Giant volcanoes. Airborne boats. The first-ever footage from Avatar: Fire and Ash, the sequel to two of the highest grossing movies of all time, debuted at the CinemaCon event on Thursday. Out this December, the film "expands the beautiful world of Pandora and introduces two new clans," explained star Zoe Saldana, from the stage of the Las Vegas convention of movie theatre owners. Director James Cameron, speaking in a pre-recorded clip from New Zealand, where he is finishing the film, said the movie's heroes must "face not only the human invaders, but new adversaries, the Ash People." The stakes for Avatar: Fire and Ash could hardly be higher for the movie industry. More respected than loved by critics, the previous two Avatar films were unprecedented commercial hits. They are the top and the third-highest grossing films of all time, collectively earning well over $5 billion globally. But across the industry as a whole, box office takings have never recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and 2025 is off to an unexpectedly weak start due to flops like Disney's Snow White. Cameron said he hoped "this film can provide a shot in the arm for theatre owners, as we're still struggling after the one-two punch of the pandemic and streaming." Footage from the third Avatar film shows heroes Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Saldana) aboard giant, balloon-hoisted wooden ships, being towed through the air by huge blue stingray-like creatures. The convoy comes under attack from the Ash People – who look like Na'vi but sport bright-red head-dresses, and shoot flaming arrows. "The Wind Traders are a peaceful, nomadic, air travelling clan. And the Ash People are former Na'vi who have forsaken Eywa," the blue-skinned humanoid tribe's goddess, explained Saldana. Cameron has previously said the new film will be longer than Avatar: The Way of Water, which ran for three hours and 12 minutes. Two more Avatar films are dated for 2029 and 2031. AFP
The Independent
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
James Cameron shares Avatar 3 ‘hope' after debuting first footage
James Cameron has revealed his main 'hope' for Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film in the blockbuster franchise. The filmmaker, who recently shared the first verdicts on the film, is hard at work on the third Avatar film, which will be released in December, and on Thursday (3 April), released a first look at CinemaCon. While the footage is not available to watch online, cinema exhibitors gathered in Las Vegas for the annual event were given 3D glasses to watch the clip, which has been described as 'dazzling'. Variety reported that the footage introduced two new Na'vi clans. First up, were the Wind Traders, who soar in the sky using hot air balloons, and their enemies, the Fire People. In the clip, the warring clans prepare for battle, with one Na'vi shown to be shot with a flaming arrow. Speaking on a video provided for the panel, Cameron said that the main characters are 'put through the wringer' in the new film, with Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) telling Neytiri (Zoe Saldana): ' 'We cannot live like this – we cannot live with this hate.' Cameron also said that he 'hopes this film can provide a shot in the arm for theatre owners, as we're still struggling after the one-two punch of the pandemic and streaming'. Cinema attendance has been down in recent years, but has been assisted in a big way by Cameron's previous Avatar film, Avatar: The Way of Water, which is the third highest-grossing film of all time behind Cameron's very own Avatar and Avengers: Endgame. Other blockbusters to have pulled the box office out of the slump include Barbie and Oppenheimer, which were released on the same day in 2023, and 2024's Dune: Part 2. All eyes will be on Fire and Ash 's box office numbers when it's finally released on 19 December. Cameron previously revealed what fans could expect from the new sequel, explaining that it will explore 'different cultures from those I have already shown'. In the first and second parts of the franchise, viewers were introduced to two different Na'vi clans, the Omaticaya and the Metkayina. In both Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, the Omaticaya and the Metkayina clans are peaceful tribes and only retaliate when their land is threatened by humans. However, Cameron has revealed that the next film will see the fiery side of these tribes, which 'will be represented by the 'Ash People''. He told France's 20 Minutes: 'I want to show the Na'vi from another angle because, so far, I have only shown their good sides.' 'In the early films, there are very negative human examples and very positive Na'vi examples.' In Avatar 3, we will do the opposite. We will also explore new worlds, while continuing the story of the main characters. 'I can say that the last parts will be the best. The others were an introduction, a way to set the table before serving the meal.' There will be two more Avatar films after Fire and Ash, and they will be released in December 2029 and December 2031, respectively.
USA Today
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Zoe Saldaña wows crowd with epic first look at 'Avatar: Fire & Ash'
Zoe Saldaña wows crowd with epic first look at 'Avatar: Fire & Ash' LAS VEGAS – Humans aren't the only problem for our Na'vi heroes in the next "Avatar" movie. Closing out Disney's presentation at CinemaCon on Thursday, franchise star (and newly minted Oscar winner) Zoe Saldaña introduced the first 3D footage of "Avatar: Fire & Ash" (in theaters Dec. 19) at the convention of theater owners. Director James Cameron sent a video message from New Zealand, where he's finishing up the third "Avatar" installment before its holiday release. The last film, "Avatar: The Way of Water," introduced the aquatic Metkayina clan to the film's mythology, and the sweeping and expansive first footage gave the audience a peek at two more tribes. Saldaña described the Windtraders as a "nomadic air clan" while the Mangkwan clan, aka the "Ash People," are former Nai'vi who have forsaken the deity Eywa and live amid volcanos. Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox The footage showed the Sully family – including Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Saldaña) – traveling from the oceanic environment where they ended up in "The Way of Water" and taking to the skies in large jellyfish-y air ships. They're attacked by bandits on winged creatures, and while we don't really know anything about the plot yet, it's clear that there's not a lot of peace these days in Pandora. "We cannot live like this, in hate," Jake says. But trouble comes from a couple of sides for Jake and Co. in "Fire & Ash." The human invaders as usual are a major threat to Pandora in an existential sense, plus former military guy/Na'vi villain Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is a constant thorn in their sides. And while the Ash People look really cool, they're quite fearsome when our heroes run afoul of the rage-filled and fiery antagonists. "Your goddess has no dominion here," snarls the Ash People's leader, Varang (Oona Chaplin). Saldaña teased that "Fire & Ash" is "unlike anything audiences have ever seen and exactly what they want."
