Credit: DisneyVisionary director James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) made waves when it arrived in theaters late last year. The multi-billion dollar grossing film is just the second in what will eventually be a full-blown Avatar franchise overseen by Disney, with a third installment having already been shot ahead of its tentative December 2025 premiere date. And recently, we might have just gotten a look at what to expect from the upcoming threequel, which could potentially feature a love triangle no one saw coming.
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There’s still a long way to go before Avatar 3 lands in theaters in 2025, with its expected release date seeming increasingly doubtful as the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes continue to bring Hollywood to a standstill. But if James Cameron is anything, it’s stubborn. And when it comes to his Avatar franchise, he already has a clear vision of its future on the big screen.
Avatar: The Way of Water came a whopping 13 years after the release of Avatar (2009), with the significant gap being chalked up to a number of things, including time-intensive CGI and VFX, Cameron’s heavy use of pioneering underwater filming technology, and the fact that Avatar 3 was filmed simultaneously, leading to a remarkably long production.
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Picking up 15 years after its predecessor, The Way of Water once again follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and introduces audiences to their children: Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and the two they’ve adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Miles “Spider” Socorro (Jack Champion), a human who grew up on Pandora.
Despite being a newcomer to the franchise, Jack Champion’s Spider played a crucial role in The Way of Water, where it was revealed that he’s actually the son of Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephan Lang). Although his biological father threatens to destroy the Metkayina Clan and their ocean home, Spider is initially sympathetic to Quaritch, with whom he’s developed a pseudo-father-son bond after the Colonel saved him from Neytiri’s murderous wrath. However, he comes to his senses and decides not to join him in the end.
And based on what we know, we can expect to see a lot more of Spider in Avatar 3, which the actor himself described as taking a “hard left turn” from previous stories. Aside from the fact that one of Way of Water‘s bonus features already revealed a pivotal scene involving Spider, there’s still a lot to learn about the character’s significance moving forward, and a new behind-the-scenes featurette might’ve just spoiled it.
Following the latest film’s at-home release, a new scene from either the second or third Avatar movie shows the first interaction between Spider and Bailey Bass’ Tsireya, the daughter of the Metkayina Clan’s leaders, Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and Ronal (Kate Winslet). Considering the pair don’t actually interact in Way of Water, this is most likely a deleted scene or perhaps, a moment they decided to cut in lieu of placing it in the upcoming threequel.
The image (seen above) shows Spider handling Tsireya a bottle of some sort, with the latter being in awe of this action. Tsirey’s apparent fascination with Spider could be because it’s the first time she’s seen a “Sky Person” in the flesh, though the contents of the bottle might also be what’s causing the Na’vi to tilt her head in interest.
Now that the Sully family has been officially accepted into the Metkayina Clan, it’s reasonable to assume that Jake would want to bring Spider into the fold, especially in the aftermath of their firstborn son’s untimely death. This could lead to his first interaction with Tsireya, which, based purely on their expressions in the newly-unveiled Way of Water footage, might hint at a deeper kind of relationship.
While the sequel built up the budding romance between Lo’ak and Tsireya, Avatar 3 could see a love triangle between them and Spider, which aligns with Cameron’s previous comments that the second-eldest Sully child will be the narrator of the next film. Given that Avatar 3 will be told from his point of view, examining the relationships and potential jealousy between each of these characters could prove to be a central plot point.
Ultimately, it does seem like filmmakers have already planted the seeds for Lo’ak and Tsireya to be “endgame,” with the couple’s romance signifying the ultimate link between the forest and water tribes of Pandora. Kiri has a very close and special relationship with Spider, though it remains uncertain whether or not their bond is strictly platonic or if there’s a different tension due to their unresolved feelings for each other.
For now, little remains known about Avatar 3, and story specifics will likely be kept under tight wraps until the movie gets closer to its expected winter 2025 premiere. But with 95% of principal photography already being shot, we might be able to return to Pandora a little sooner than expected, given there are no additional interruptions down the line.
What do you think of Avatar 3 featuring a love triangle between Spider, Lo’ak, and Tsireya? Let us know in the comments below.