Fire and Ash’ first footage shows off new Na’vi tribes

James Cameron has unveiled the first official footage from Avatar: Fire and Ash, though the general public may have to wait a little longer to see it.

The Titanic filmmaker wowed CinemaCon attendees with the first clip from his third Avatar movie during Disney’s presentation Thursday afternoon. “This sucker is coming out like a freight train,” Cameron said in a video message, which he recorded in New Zealand, where he’s finishing post-production on the film.

Fire and Ash will introduce two new Na’vi tribes on Pandora: the menacing Ash People, who have “forsaken” the Na’vi deity Eywa, according to star Zoe Saldaña, and the peaceful Wind Traders. The footage showed the family of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Saldaña) encountering the wind tribe, who travel across the skies in massive ships with organic-looking sails that are pulled by giant floating turtle-like creatures.

The Ash People, who bear red headdresses and have ash smeared across their faces, then attack Jake and Neytiri with a barrage of flaming arrows. Later, Jake tells Neytiri, “We cannot live like this, baby. We cannot live with this hate.” The footage also showed numerous shots of the Sully family in peril.

Cameron explained the intentions behind the subtitle Fire and Ash during an interview with Entertainment Weekly at D23 last year. “”It took a long time to come up with a title that I felt resonated with what’s in the film,” he said. “I don’t think I could say too much about it until you actually see the film and you see what it means, but if you think of fire as hatred, anger, violence, that sort of thing, and ash is the aftermath. So what’s the aftermath? Grief, loss, right? And then what does that cause in the future? More violence, more anger, more hatred. It’s a vicious cycle.”

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Cameron also teased the tone and character work of the third Avatar chapter. “I think it goes to darker places than the previous ones did, but it’s still obviously this open, glorious, grand adventure, which is what we aspire to do every time we set out,” he told EW. “But we’re not afraid to go into the dark places of our characters, which I think is also good. I think that’s also what people really feel they want when they get to know a character well, either through a series or whatever it is that they follow. They want to know more. They want to know more about them, find out what their limits are, so to speak. And we do that.”

Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters Dec. 19, 2025.

With reporting from Lauren Huff and Mike Miller.