Avatar: Fire and Ash
concept art provides a new look at the Ash Clan’s destroyed home. Following the mᴀssive success of Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022, the world of James Cameron’s Avatar franchise is set to return later this year with the release of the highly-anticipated third installment. The Avatar: Fire and Ash story will introduce two new Na’vi clans, including the nomadic Wind Traders and the villainous Ash Clan, as Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family continue their fight against the RDA.
Empire now shares a new piece of Avatar: Fire and Ash concept art, providing the best look yet at Ash Village, the place that the Ash Clan, also known as the Mangkwan Clan, call home. Though Pandora is known for its bioluminescence and abundance of life, the concept art shows that the Mangkwan Clan’s home is gray and mostly devoid of living things. Check out the new piece of concept art below:
Production designer Dylan Cole tells Empire that the gray structure in the concept art is actually the burned remains of the Mangkwan’s Hometree, which, at one point, wasn’t all that different from the one featured in the 2009 original film:
“[The Mangkwan] had a natural disaster befall them, and that sort of helped shaped their culture. So much of the world of Pandora is rich and vibrant and full of life — this is just the exact opposite. They used to live not too dissimilarly to the Omatikaya from Avatar 1.”
What The Ash Clan Means For Avatar 3
The Mangkwan Will Be A Big New Challenge For The Sully Family
Cameron has now made clear that the Mangkwan in Avatar: Fire and Ash won’t be as friendly as the Omatikaya and Metkayina. He previously told Empire that “We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.” Oona Chaplin’s Varang serves as the Mangkwan Clan’s leader, and she is set to serve as an interesting new wrinkle in the Sully family saga, potentially becoming an antagonist with as much capacity for destruction as the human forces.
A major part of the appeal of the Avatar franchise is Cameron’s depiction of the world of Pandora, a magical place filled with otherworldly creatures and bold colors. Environmentalism is also a major franchise theme. The introduction of the Ash Clan in Avatar: Fire and Ash could help Cameron further flesh out this theme, showing how the Na’vi change after the natural beauty of their home is stripped away. It’s possible that the Ash Clan will end up joining forces with the RDA, as a previous piece of concept art showed Quaritch (Stephen Lang) traveling to the Ash Village.
Avatar: The Way of Water ended with Quaritch nearly drowning, but Spider (Jack Champion) saved him at the last moment, and this could be setting the villain up for a redemption arc.
Our Take On The New Avatar: Fire & Ash Concept Art
The Ash Clan Could Make The Franchise Even Better
Though reviews for Avatar: The Way of Water were generally positive from critics, the introduction of the Mangkwan could be a very exciting evolution for the franchise. Depicting a location so devoid of the colorful Pandorian life that helped the franchise become popular is a bit of a risk purely in terms of audience satisfaction, but it could end up making the rest of Pandora seem even more beautiful and worthy of protection.
The concept of a more antagonistic Na’vi tribe could complicate the franchise in a compelling way, especially since Quaritch also seems likely to become more nuanced moving forward. Adding in these complications may not only make Avatar: Fire and Ash a success, but it could pave the way for richer and deeper sequels in the years ahead.
Source: Empire
