Summary

  • Avatar's original message wasn't about the Na'vi being uniquely heroic. The movie humanized the decision to invade Pandora, but still made it clear that the Na'vi were right to defend their home.
  • Both existing Avatar movies acknowledged the faults of the Na'vi and the existence of heroic human characters. Avatar 3's full-blown Na'vi villains aren't a major novelty.
  • The Avatar franchise is in an awkward position with its 5-movie plan. It needs to find a way to make the plot feel fresh without betraying the Na'vi and repeating the same story. There are smarter alternatives to introducing evil Na'vi characters.

The news that James Cameron’s Avatar 3 will feature villainous Na’vi characters could ultimately work to undermine the franchise’s original message. 2009’s Avatar was a massive success at the box office, although it wasn’t as unambiguously adored by critics. Although almost all its reviewers did concede that the movie’s visuals were stunning, some criticized what they perceived as the movie’s simplistic storytelling. When its long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, was finally released in late 2022, the same accusations resurfaced while the groundbreaking visuals were once again singled out for praise by most viewers.

Now, 2025’s Avatar 3 promises to change this. Director James Cameron told the French outlet 20Minutes that this sequel would show more of the Na’vi’s villainous side, proving that things were more morally complicated than they appeared on Pandora. Per Cameron, “In the early films, there are very negative human examples and very positive Na’vi examples. In Avatar 3, we’ll do the reverse.” This might sound like a welcome change of pace but, in reality, this change risks ruining the bedrock that one of the most successful franchises in cinema history was built upon.

Avatar 3's Na'vi Villains Weakens James Cameron's Original Message

Avatar’s original message wasn’t about the Na’vi being uniquely heroic

In Avatar, the human characters, represented by large corporations and the US Army, opted to invade the planet of Pandora and displace its local population because the resource-rich region was strategically important to them. Avatar did a good job humanizing this decision, as the movie’s opening third shows just how terrible conditions are on Earth. However, it is still clear that the Na’vi are right to defend their home and the humans are wrong to steal it. This is reaffirmed in Avatar: The Way of Water’s ending when Jake and his family once again promise to resist human occupation

Part of what made Avatar so successful in the first place was the appealing simplicity of this narrative. While individual human villains like Qauritch could be redeemed in Avatar’s later sequels, the broader project of invading Pandora is an unambiguously villainous one. Trying to prove that some of the Na’vi are just as villainous as the human characters dulls the anti-imperial ethos that makes the series so compelling. This turns the franchise into just another space opera where everyone has a point and both sides ultimately need to compromise, depriving Cameron’s story of the stakes that made Avatar uniquely effective.

The Avatar Movies Already Had Bad Na'vi & Good Humans

Both existing Avatar movies acknowledge the Na’vi’s faults

Sigourney Weaver as Grace Augustine standing in the lab in Avatar

While producer Jon Landau reaffirmed Cameron’s comments with claims that in Avatar 3, “Just like not all humans are bad, not all Na'vi are good,” this flies in the face of what the first two movies depicted. Both Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water acknowledged the existence of flawed Na’vi characters and unambiguously heroic human figures. When Jake first met the Na’vi, they were hostile. The Metkayina were also distrustful of his family for much of the sequel's story, criticizing their failure to fit in among an unfamiliar clan and even repeatedly threatening to kick them out.

As such, Avatar 3’s full-blown Na’vi villains aren’t a major novelty. Similarly, both Avatar and its first sequel had plenty of good human characters, including Norm, Max, Grace, and even Jake Sully himself. In fact, the protagonist of the entire franchise is living proof that human characters have a good side. However, what made Jake good was his ability to act against his own interests, so he could save an indigenous population from being displaced and killed by an invading army. No matter how villainous Avatar 3’s Na’vi act, they will still be the heroes of Pandora's story.

James Cameron's 5-Movie Plan Creates A Villain Problem For Avatar 3, 4 & 5

Cameron’s franchise can’t repeat itself or throw out its formula

Sam Worthington as Jake Sully wearing an Exopack in Avatar

This puts the Avatar franchise, which is already set to run for five movies, in an awkward position. The series is caught between doing something different and potentially ruining the franchise's message, or coming across repetitive by revisiting the same story with each new sequel. Avatar: The Way of Water’s Tulkun subplot managed to find an ingenious workaround for this issue by showing the ways that human colonization impacted another species of Pandora. Not only did Payakan prove to be a breakout character, but his story gave Avatar's long-awaited sequel a way to avoid feeling like a retread.

However, this is going to get harder as the series progresses. If Avatar 3 depicts the Na’vi as villains and the humans as heroes, this would go against the ethos of the entire franchise. That said, if the sequel tries to repeat Avatar: The Way of Water’s trick with another species that also has a unique bond with another clan of Na’vi, this could get old fast. The sequel must find a way to make its plot feel fresh without betraying the Na’vi by turning the victims of an invasion into oppressors themselves solely for narrative novelty. Fortunately, there are answers.

One thing the series can do is focus on how the psychological impact of warfare has affected the Na’vi characters. Neytiri’s potential villainous turn in Avatar 3 would be caused by seeing the human invaders murder her child, a stark reminder that the Na’vi defending their homes have more than enough reason to resort to violence. Similarly, Avatar 3 could prove surprisingly thoughtful if its villainous Na’vi turn out to be characters whose decency has been worn away by decades of invaders ravaging their homeland.

Avatar 3 Doesn't Need Na'vi Villains - There Are Better Ideas

There are smarter ways to diversify the franchise’s villains than evil Na’vi

Recombinant Quaritch hissing in Avatar: The Way of Water

Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water both had the RDA as villains, but there are other ways that new human antagonists can appear. For one thing, Earth's governments could make a concerted effort to settle on Pandora since, as evidenced by the original movie, Earth itself is ruined. Avatar: The Way of Water’s best new villain, Tulkun hunter Mick Scoresby, will also return in the Tulkun-hunting subplot. His company of space whalers is likely to mount a brutal reprisal against the Metkayina after the sequel’s triumphant ending, meaning there is another set of human villains that the franchise could still introduce to viewers.

Alternatively, the series could introduce a totally different species from elsewhere that has taken the side of humanity in this invasion. There are three more movies in the Avatar saga, meaning there is no reason to limit the characters to humans and Na’vi. However, making the Na’vi villains solely because the series needs to change its formula is a terrible idea. Real-life indigenous activists donned Na’vi outfits to protest occupation, proving that Cameron’s movie struck a chord with viewers the world over. Losing that resonance for the sake of giving Avatar 3 a new villain would be a major mistake.