If you remember the first “Avatar” film (and who could blame you if you didn’t, as the feature is now more than a decade old?), most of the humans in the film are shown to be jerks. As you root for the Na’vi, you actively hope the humans fail in their horrible goals. But you see, the untitled “Avatar” sequel, which is hitting theaters in about a year, introduces a new human character that might tug at your heartstrings.
As seen in a new interview with Empire, ‘“Avatar 2” producer Jon Landau explained how the new human character, Spider (played by Jack Champion), fits into the overall story. And you see, Spider isn’t just yet another human who you’re going to hope dies by the end of the film. No, no, no. This time, there’s a human who is directly tied to the Na’vi in a surprising way. He’s the pseudo-adopted son of both Jake and Neytiri, our heroes from the first film.
“Jake took him in, but Neytiri always saw him as one of the people who destroyed her home and killed her father,” producer Jon Landau said. “So you have all these dynamics playing out.”
“If you look at what Jim [Cameron] does in his movies, he writes in universal themes that are bigger than the genre of any one movie,” Landau added. “This time around, we’re taking Jake and Neytiri and building the most universal theme of all around them. Which is family. Jake comes from the human world, Neytiri from the Na’vi world. So, they’re like a modern mixed-race couple, raising kids who perhaps feel they don’t belong to one world or another.”
So, you can see that Spider isn’t just a new supporting character, but really the heart and soul of the new ‘Avatar’ sequel. Those hoping that the new James Cameron film dives into more emotional territory and isn’t just a hi-tech proof of concept feature will be happy to know that the filmmaker is taking a page from the ‘Fast & Furious’ handbook and focusing on the only thing that matters—family.
Is Spider the character that will add a new wrinkle to the ‘Avatar’ world and begin to paint the picture of where the franchise is headed over the subsequent several sequels? We’ll find out on December 16, 2022.
You can see the Empire exclusive image of Spider below:
