Avatar: Fire and Ashconcept art provides a new look at the Ash Clan’s destroyed home. Following the massive success ofAvatar: The Way of Waterin 2022, the world of James Cameron’sAvatarfranchise is set to return later this year with the release of the highly-anticipated third installment. TheAvatar: Fire and Ashstorywill 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.
Empirenow shares a new piece ofAvatar: Fire and Ashconcept art, providing the best look yet atAsh 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 tellsEmpirethat 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 fromAvatar 1.”
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The Mangkwan Will Be A Big New Challenge For The Sully Family
Cameron has now made clear that the Mangkwan inAvatar: Fire and Ashwon’t be as friendly as the Omatikaya and Metkayina. He previously toldEmpirethat"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.
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While the first Avatar movie focused primarily on the Omaticaya, the Avatar franchise has explored many more Na’vi Clans in the sequels and tie-ins.
A major part of the appeal of theAvatarfranchise 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 inAvatar: Fire and Ashcould 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 showedQuaritch (Stephen Lang) traveling to the Ash Village.
Avatar: The Way of Waterendedwith 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
Thoughreviews forAvatar: The Way of Waterwere 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, butit 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 makeAvatar: Fire and Asha success, but it could pave the way for richer and deeper sequels in the years ahead.
