One of the most successful, ambitious, expansive and expensive film franchises in Hollywood history, Avatar returns to theaters on December 18, 2025 with James Cameron’s third installment in the franchise, Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Since the original Avatar released in 2009, James Cameron’s Pandora has grown in scope and scale. Clocking in at $400 million total production budget, Fire and Ash is now the sixth-most expensive film ever made!
With so many characters and storylines to keep track of through two films so far, we put together a guide of each major character’s arc throughout the saga and where we find them as the story continues.
Need to catch up on the Avatar movies? You can watch the first Avatar film right on DIRECTV, and the second on Disney+ through DIRECTV!
Cast & Characters of ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’
WARNING: Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water spoilers ahead.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Avatar: Fire and Ash cast.
Sam Worthington as Jake Sully
Jake starts the saga as a paraplegic ex-Marine who lost the use of his legs in combat and feels adrift and purposeless on Earth. After his scientist twin brother is killed, Jake is recruited to replace him in the Avatar Program because they of their identical DNA. This allows Jake to use his brother’s genetically matched Na’vi body, or avatar, to make contact with Pandora’s native inhabitants.
At first, Jake secretly reports to the human military and corporate leaders about Na’vi life and defenses, helping them plan how to seize valuable resources under Na’vi land. Over time, he fall in love with one of the Na’vi, Neytiri, and and grows to respect the Na’vi’s culture and bond with Pandora. He rejects his original mission and chooses to defend the Na’vi instead of helping his fellow humans destroy their Hometree.
Jake bonds with the mighty flying predator Toruk, earning the legendary title of Toruk Makto, and unites multiple Na’vi clans to fight the human invaders. Using his military experience and new Na’vi skills, he leads a successful resistance that drives most humans off Pandora.
Jake’s consciousness is permanently transferred into his Na’vi body and he fully lives as Na’vi. He becomes a husband to Neytiri, father to their children, and a responsible Na’vi tribe leader focused on protecting both his family and Pandora from new human threats.
In Avatar: The Way of Water, Jake once again defends Pandora from the RDA, with many of the deceased soldiers now themselves inhabiting Na’vi Avatar bodies, 10 years after the events of the original film.
Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri
Neytiri is a central Na’vi heroine in Pandora known for her skill in combat, deep spiritual faith, and fierce loyalty to her people and family. She begins as Jake Sully’s reluctant mentor and ends up his partner and the heart of his connection to Pandora.
Neytiri first encounters Jake when he’s lost and under attack by Pandora’s predators. She chooses to save him after interpreting a sign from Eywa as guidance to spare his life. Though she initially despises him as a “skxawng” (fool) and distrusts humans in general, she is assigned to teach him Na’vi ways. Gradually she recognizes his sincerity and helps him bond with the forested planet, its creatures and the clan.
As Jake integrates into the clan, Neytiri serves as both his trainer and moral compass, grounding him in Na’vi values of balance, respect for nature and connection to Eywa.
During the human assault on Hometree and later the Tree of Souls, she fights as one of the Omaticaya’s fiercest warriors and ultimately kills Colonel Quaritch to save Jake, demonstrating both her tactical skill and unwavering loyalty.
Neytiri mates with Jake, helping lead the Omaticaya as his partner while also raising their children Neteyam, Lo’ak, Tuk and adopted daughter Kiri. In Way of Water, she plays a pivotal role in rescuing her children alongside Jake.
Jamie Flatters as Neteyam
Neteyam is Jake and Neytiri’s firstborn and the older brother to Lo’ak, Kiri, and Tuk. From a young age he is treated as the natural future leader. He’s asked to look after his siblings and to set an example in combat, hunting and clan behavior.
Neteyam is brave, disciplined and kind, combining his father’s tactical mindset with his mother’s skill as a hunter. He excels at Na’vi rites of passage like flying an ikran and fighting, but he also carries a heavy sense of responsibility.
During the RDA’s renewed invasion and the Sully family’s move to live with the Metkayina, Neteyam consistently acts as Jake’s right hand, trying to keep his siblings safe in unfamiliar waters.
In the final battle, he is fatally shot while rescuing Lo’ak and Spider and his death devastates the family, marking a turning point that deepens Jake and Lo’ak’s resolve against the human threat.
Britain Dalton as Lo’ak
The middle child of the Sully clain, Lo’ak deeply admires his older brother and father but often clashes with Jake’s strict expectations.
Lo’ak is bold, emotional and quick to act, which frequently gets him into fights and other dangerous situations. Because he has five fingers and some human-like features, he is teased as having “demon blood,” leaving him feeling rejected both by parts of the Omatikaya and the Metkayina clans.
After moving to the reef, Lo’ak adapts surprisingly well to the ocean, becoming an excellent swimmer and diver and bonding with Tsireya, Tonowari and Ronal’s daughter.
He forms a “spirit brother” bond with Payakan, an outcast tulkun (a highly-intelligent whale-like creature), seeing his own pain mirrored in Payakan’s exile.
Lo’ak plays a key role in the final battle, helping rescue his siblings and father and working with Payakan to attack the RDA whaling ship. His choices indirectly lead to Neteyam’s death, leaving him with heavy guilt.
Trinity Bliss as Tuktirey “Tuk”
Tuk is Jake and Neytiri’s youngest and only biological daughter, growing up closely bonded with her siblings Neteyam, Lo’ak and Kiri. She is portrayed as about eight years old in the film and is shown as especially attached to her mother, grandmother Mo’at and big sister Kiri.
Tuk is precocious, strong‑willed and brave, with an eagerness to help despite being the smallest in the family. She is wide‑eyed and delighted by Pandora’s beauty but has also been raised to face its dangers, making her both playful and surprisingly tough for her age.
Sigourney Weaver as Kiri
Kiri is the biological child of Grace Augustine’s avatar body, which was discovered to be inexplicably pregnant after Grace’s death. Jake and Neytiri adopt the baby, raising her among the Omaticaya as part of their family alongside Neteyam, Lo’ak, Tuk and their human ward Spider.
Kiri is gentle, introspective and curious, often lying in the forest or underwater in quiet meditation, feeling what she describes as Eywa’s “heartbeat.”
She demonstrates extraordinary abilities: an unusually strong spiritual link to Eywa, instinctive communication with Pandora’s creatures and hints that she can adapt to different environments more easily than other Na’vi.
Kiri struggles with feeling different and not fully understanding her origin, but her powers become crucial to help save her family. Her visions at the underwater spirit tree and the reactions of the natural world around her strongly suggest she may be a kind of “chosen” figure or living bridge between Eywa, the Na’vi and humans.
Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch
Quaritch is a former Force Recon Marine who becomes head of Security Operations (SecOps) for the RDA at the Hell’s Gate base on Pandora. After being badly scarred by local wildlife early in his deployment, he develops a deep hatred for Pandora’s creatures and its indigenous Na’vi.
Quaritch recruits Jake Sully to spy on the Omaticaya clan, promising medical help in exchange for tactical information to clear the Na’vi from valuable resources. He orders the destruction of Hometree and later leads the assault on the Tree of Souls, but is ultimately killed when Neytiri shoots him during his final fight with Jake.
The RDA backs up Quaritch’s memories into a “recombinant” Na’vi avatar body so he can return if killed. Ten years after the events of the first film, he comes back to Pandora as a taller, blue-skinned recon soldier, tasked specifically with hunting down Jake Sully and suppressing Na’vi resistance.
Jack Champion as Miles “Spider” Socorro
Spider is a human teenager raised on Pandora who becomes an unofficial member of the Sully family in Avatar: The Way of Water.
Spider was born at Hell’s Gate on Pandora and could not be sent back to Earth as a baby because infants cannot survive the long journey in cryosleep. Orphaned, he is taken in and raised by the scientists and the Sullys, growing up alongside Jake and Neytiri’s children and treating them as his siblings.
It is later revealed that Spider is the biological son of Colonel Miles Quaritch, with his full name being Miles Socorro. When Quaritch returns in a recombinant Na’vi body, he kidnaps Spider, and over time they form a complicated bond.
At the end of The Way of Water, Spider makes a pivotal choice by saving Quaritch from drowning but then rejects him and returns to the Sullys.
CCH Pounder as Mo’at
Mo’at is the tsahìk, or spiritual leader, of the Omaticaya clan in the Avatar films, serving as a wise interpreter of Eywa’s will. She is Neytiri’s mother and Eytukan’s mate, providing guidance during times of crisis for her people.
Cliff Curtis as Tonowari
First appearing in Avatar: Way of Water, Tonowari holds the title of olo’eyktan (chief) of the Metkayina, overseeing hunting, village building and the general welfare of his reef clan. He is the mate of Ronal and father of Ao’nung and Tsireya, with another child on the way.
When Jake and Neytiri arrive seeking refuge, Tonowari initially hesitates but ultimately agrees to shelter them, asking his people to help the forest family adapt to life in the reefs.
Later, after the RDA targets the Metkayina and kidnaps his children and the Sullys’, he commits his warriors to open battle at sea against the human whalers and recon soldiers.
Kate Winslet as Ronal
Ronal co-leads the Metkayina with her mate, Tonowari, from their village of Awa’atlu. She is mother to Tsireya, Aonung and their unborn third child. She oversees spiritual ceremonies like the “first breath” rite for newborns.
Ronal initially distrusts Jake Sully’s forest family when they seek refuge, sensing danger from their “different rhythms” and human ties. Despite her reservations, she allows them to stay and even trains Kiri in spiritual practices after Kiri’s seizure at the underwater Spirit Tree.
Pregnant but undeterred, Ronal joins the battle against the RDA, wielding spears and leading warriors to rescue her children and the Sullys from capture. She blends spiritual wisdom, maternal protectiveness and combat prowess to make her a symbol of Metkayina resilience.
Bailey Bass as Tsireya “Reya”
Tsireya is the teenage daughter of Metkayina leaders Tonowari and Ronal. She is the clan’s tsakarem (tsahìk-in-training), preparing to become its future spiritual leader and healer.
When the Sully family seeks refuge with the Metkayina, Tsireya is tasked with helping Jake and Neytiri’s children adapt to the “way of water,” especially Lo’ak. She patiently teaches them to swim, free‑dive and bond with sea creatures, and gradually forms a close, budding romantic connection with Lo’ak.
Filip Geljo as Ao’nung
Ao’nung is the teenage son of Metkayina leaders Tonowari and Ronal in Avatar: The Way of Water. As the clan’s skilled young hunter and diver, he leads his peers and initially resents helping the Sully family adapt to reef life. He starts as a bully but grows into a more responsible ally.
Joel David Moore as Dr. Norm Spellman
Norm is an anthropologist, xenolinguist and xenobotanist who studied under Dr. Grace Augustine and arrived on Pandora in 2154. In the first film, he pilots an Avatar, conducts fieldwork with Jake and helps document Na’vi life before joining the resistance against the RDA.
After the humans are driven off, Norm chooses to stay on Pandora in his human body, linking to his Avatar for mobility and leading the remaining scientists from sites like the old Hell’s Gate or mobile labs. He provides Jake with counsel, tech support and deep knowledge of Na’vi customs, acting as a bridge between human science and Na’vi ways.
In The Way of Water, Norm aids the Sullys after Neteyam’s death and helps with Kiri’s medical crisis after her seizure.
Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel
Dr. Max Patel is a loyal scientist and key ally to Jake Sully. Patel works in the Avatar Program under Grace Augustine, handling neural synchronization and tech support at Hell’s Gate. He aids Jake’s integration and later helps transfer Jake’s consciousness into his Avatar body during the uprising against the RDA.
In The Way of Water, Max assists with Kiri’s medical crisis alongside Norm, using his expertise to diagnose her condition from a hidden base. Cut off from RDA resources, he and his team innovate to sustain the human exiles while providing intel and gear to the Sullys.
Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge
Parker Selfridge is the RDA’s corporate administrator on Pandora, prioritizing unobtanium profits over ethics or Na’vi lives. He oversees Hell’s Gate operations, clashes with scientists like Grace Augustine and greenlights destructive actions like destroying Hometree.
Edie Falco as General Frances Ardmore
General Frances Ardmore is a high-ranking RDA military commander introduced in Avatar: The Way of Water. She oversees the corporation’s aggressive recolonization efforts on Pandora. She outranks Colonel Quaritch’s recombinant forces and represents the strategic human leadership driving the invasion as Earth collapses.
Pragmatic and fanatical, Ardmore blends cold efficiency with ideological zeal, training human children as “soldiers of the future” and justifying violence as necessary for survival.
Ardmore returns prominently in Avatar: Fire and Ash, teased as a major human antagonist.
Brendan Cowell as Captain Mick Scoresby
Captain Mick Scoresby is a ruthless RDA whaler and captain of the SeaDragon introduced in Avatar: The Way of Water. He leads brutal hunts for tulkun to harvest their amrita, which is said to stop human aging.
After losing an arm to Payakan in the film’s climax, Scoresby survives and returns in Avatar: Fire and Ash with a high-tech prosthetic, now driven by personal revenge against the tulkun.
Jemaine Clement as Dr. Ian Garvin
Garvin works closely with Captain Mick Scoresby, providing expertise on tulkun migration patterns and biology to aid hunts, including the targeting of Payakan’s mother. His data helps the RDA harvest the rare substance amrita.
New Cast Members for ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’
Fans can expect many of the characters from the first two films to return in Avatar: Fire and Ash. Here are the new major players in the new film.
Oona Chaplin as Varang
Varang is the fierce leader of the volcanic Mangkwan (Ash People) clan. She debuts as a major antagonist in Avatar: Fire and Ash. Shaped by a devastating volcanic eruption that destroyed her homeland, she rejects Eywa in favor of fire worship and militaristic dominance.
Her red ash-covered appearance and fire-manipulating abilities symbolize this radical shift from harmony to vengeance.
David Thewlis as Peylak
Peylak is the chief of the nomadic Tlalim clan, also known as the Wind Traders. He leads his aerial Na’vi people who traverse Pandora’s skies, embodying a rootless, trade-focused lifestyle distinct from other clans.
Watch ‘Avatar’ Movies on DIRECTV
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many Avatar movies has James Cameron made?
Three: Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash.
How much did the first Avatar cost to make?
The original Avatar cost $237 million to make, making it the most expensive film ever produced, making it one of the most expensive movies in history at the time.
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