Last month in an interview with French publication 20 Minutes, James Cameron revealed plans to introduce new, naughty Na'vi and more enlightened humans, to flip what we've seen previously.

English publications are reporting on it now but missing something we find noteworthy.

What can we expect for the next movies?

To cultures different from those I have already shown. The fire will be represented by the "Ash People". I want to reveal the Nav'is from another angle because, for the moment, I have only shown their good sides. In the early films, there are very negative human examples and very positive Navi's examples. In Avatar 3 , we'll do the reverse. We will also explore new universes 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. But, obviously, everything will depend on how& Avatar 2 will be received, if it will find its audience.

That's not only arguably fair but responsible.

Anti-racist.

So what do we think other people are missing?

Being a long-time fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek, we find it curious that simultaneously both were apparently knee-capped by incompetence paired with strong, seemingly feminist overtones.

There's no present day real world equivalent to the Jedi but their commitment to compassion, calm and non-attachment feel like echoes of Buddhism, or its Middle-Eastern roots.

Might not be a coincidence that the story and its main character Luke start in the desert.

Over in Star Trek, the equivalent is seen in pacificist, logical Vulcans whose planet takes its Earth name from the very hot environment.

Disney have trashed the Jedi and Paramount have killed nearly every Vulcan in the J. J. Abram films, and trashed them in Discovery.

Feminist belief favours emotion so it wouldn't be out of character for feminist entertainment execs to paint a target on these two groups, but it also ironically serves opposing traditional Christian interests.

Who strongly advocate monotheism and don't like religious competition.

We wouldn't be surprised if some among them are immensely pleased by these developments in Star Trek and Star Wars.

Then along comes Avatar.

While in the west the association between fire and evil / destruction is something many would take for granted, that's actually more a Christian thing.

In Eastern and older Middle-Eastern traditions, fire is associated with good, warmth and purity.

You've probably seen photos and footage of the Dalai Lama and or Tibetan monks.

Red and yellow robes.

Like fire.

Avatar being 20th Century, this is another Disney one.

Is fire / the desert getting any entertainment love?

Over in Warner Bros. it is.

In the world of sci-fi, they have Dune and in fantasy there's Harry Potter.

Dune. Desert. "Fear is the mind killer". Wacky mind powers. Hitting some of those same notes.

Harry Potter is super controversial right now because of the terrible things said by author J. K. Rowling, but the very word "magic" derives from Zoroastrian magi priests, who were big on fire.

Not only is this franchise one of the most deeply magical, but heroic Harry and buddies are all in Gryffindor, which is the fire house, and the phoenix features prominently in the story.

Even though watery Slytherin are where most of their villains have roots, not all Slytherin are bad.

We don't expect that many people would be viewing science fiction from this cultural and elemental perspective, but outside of Warner Bros., the picture appears unbalanced to our eye.

Afterthoughts

Upon reflection we had two more thoughts which count in Disney's favour on this one.

There's one scene towards the end of Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings where the good guys square off against the bad, and to flip the western convention in this eastern setting it's red = good and blue = bad.

Before the blues realise that they've been duped and join the reds to fight the real villain.

And arguably one of the longest standing examples in sci-fi of that colour convention which predates Disney is Star Wars, where Jedi lightsabers and ally laser bolts are blue, and the bad guys' are red. With some variation.

[ Main Image: Avatar The Way of Water - Trinity Jo-Li Bliss. Credit: 20th Century via IMDb.com. ]

References

Garbutt, Emily (January 3, 2022). James Cameron teases a new type of Na'vi in Avatar 3. Games Radar.

Vie, Caroline (December 10, 2022). Avatar : La Voie de l’eau » : « Mon film ne serait rien sans les acteurs », estime James Cameron. 20 Minutes.