‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Trailer: Who Knows What James Cameron’s Next Franchise Entry Is About, but It Sure Looks Good

The third film in the franchise promises to expand the scope of our understanding of life on the alien planet Pandora, but good luck trying to parse what that means from this visually stunning first look.

How’s this for a logline? When it comes to the third film in James Cameron‘s massive “Avatar” franchise, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” Disney will only share that this new installment “takes audiences back to Pandora in an immersive new adventure with Marine turned Na’vi leader Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Na’vi warrior Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and the Sully family.” That’s all assumed, right? And, for now, that’s about as much plot as we’re going to get in the “Fire and Ash” realm.

The film’s first trailer? It adheres to the same idea. When Disney showed the trailer to a select group of press last week — before a planned rollout alongside “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which opened on Friday, and after a very brief leak of the first look earlier this month — the studio generously played it three times in a row. Each time, my reaction was the same: this looks amazing, but what the heck is going on here?

Top of mind: Who are these new Na’vi we’re going to meet? Who are the so-called Ash people aligned with? Where do they live? What sort of neat animals do they have? And while this trailer does give us some good looks at this band of Na’vi, including their sooty village and their quite fierce leader, the big questions remain, plus a new one: are they actually fighting the Sully family and their aquatic Metkayina clan?

The brief glimpses we get at them hint that, at least during certain parts of the film, they are indeed fighting the Sully fam, even taking to the skies on their own be-winged animal pals in service to battle. In January, Cameron told Empire a bit more about the film, including some quite relevant notes on the Ash leader, Varang (played by Oona Chaplin). (You can get a good look at Varang and the Ash village in two concept art images shared above and below, provided by Disney.)

“Varang is the leader of a people who have gone through an incredible hardship. She’s hardened by that. She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil,” the filmmaker said. “One thing we wanted to do in this film is not be black-and-white simplistic. Or blue-and-pink simplistic. … We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm. … She’s an enemy, an adversarial character, but [Chaplin] makes her feel so real and alive.” That’s worth keeping an eye out for in this first trailer.

At CinemaCon in April, star Saldaña said on stage that the film introduces two new clans, the Windtraders (who you can see in the top image) and the Ash People, who have forsaken the Na’vi’s deity. A teaser clip shared at the event ended with one of these Ash people warriors threatening Sigourney Weaver’s character by saying, “Your goddess has no dominion here,” which is also how this trailer ends. So, no, things don’t sound like they’ve always been sunshine and flying dragons for the Ash people.

The film also stars Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Jack Champion, Britain Dalton, Trinity Bliss, and Bailey Bass. It was filmed alongside “Avatar: The Way of Water” from 2017 to 2020. Two planned (and currently untitled) sequels are in various stages of production and are expected to be released in 2029 and 2031, respectively.

Walt Disney Pictures will release “Avatar: Fire and Ash” in theaters on Friday, December 19. Check out the film’s first trailer below.