Is Avatar: Fire and Ash hiding a secret villain? James Cameron says others have “beef” with Na’vi

Just weeks before the biggest movie of 2025 hitting screens, director James Cameron is hinting at unexpected villains showing up in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

It’s been a pretty average year at the global box office, with superhero movies underperforming, and family flicks like Lilo & Stitch and A Minecraft Movie picking up the slack.

But things picked up this past weekend, thanks to Wicked for Good‘s incredible $226 million worldwide haul, while Zootopia 2 is the next blockbuster out of the gate.

Then December belongs to the third Avatar movie, a sequel to two of the biggest movies of all-time, and a movie that might have some surprises in store for fans of the franchise.

James Cameron hints at new villains in Avatar: Fire and Ash

The bad guy in the first two Avatar movies was Miles Quaritch, a very human antagonist, played by the inimitable Stephen Lang.

That character is back in Fire and Ash, but the villains this time out are the volcano-dwelling ‘Fire People,’ led by Oona Chaplin’s Varang, whom James Cameron has said is capable of evil to protect her people.

But in a new interview, he has also suggested that Varang’s tribe might not be the only baddies in play.

Speaking of airborne characters in the new movie, Cameron says: “Wind Traders are fun. They’re like the circus. The circus comes to town and you want to run away with them and just travel around, coz they’re just cool.

“They’re also used to getting attacked by raiders because they go all over the planet. And the Ash People presumably are not the only people on the planet that have got a beef, or are not adhering to what the N’avi call ‘The Great Balance.’ So we’ve added some complexity there.”

Avatar: Fire and Ash hits UK screens on December 19, 2025 when we’ll find out exactly who those characters with “beef” are. Until then, check out our list of the best movies of the year so far, as well as Dexerto’s best movies of all-time.