It’s very hard to watchAvatar: The Way of Water’s opening scene without thinking Jake Sully is destined to die sooner rather than later. While many would argue that Pandora itself is theAvatarfranchise’s main character, Sam Worthington’s Jake has served as lead protagonist across both the original 2009 movie and its 2022 sequel.
Worthington returns for the upcoming third entry,2025’sAvatar: Fire & Ash, but James Cameron’s sci-fi saga isn’t stopping at a trilogy. At least two additionalAvatarmovies are in development, and if the Na’vi continue to deliver big box office bucks, it’s unlikely the IP will be given a well-earned rest after its fifth installment.
Avatar: The Way of Waterproved that the franchise’s profitability isn’t holding Cameron back from making hard story calls, with the sequel killing offJake and Neytiri’s son, Neteyam, in a surprisingly brutal turn of events. There are already theories that Jake could be next on the chopping block, and rewatching the sequel’s opening minutes, it’s difficult to see any other outcome for the Sully family.
How Avatar: The Way Of Water’s Opening Line Seals Jake Sully’s Fate
Jake Predicts His Own Future
Avatar: The Way of Wateropens with “The forests of Pandora hold many dangers, but the most dangerous thing about Pandora is that you may grow to love her too much.” The line has various applications to Jake Sully’s arc throughout theAvatarsaga so far, and primarily acts as foreshadowing forNeteyam’s deathlater in the movie. The loss is a steep, painful price in Jake’s war to save Pandora from the treacherous RDA.
A happy ending for Jake Sully is narratively impossible.
From another perspective, however, the line could very easily be setting up Jake’s own fate.The reference to Pandora’s “dangers” plays as a direct mirror of Quaritch’s speech from the first movie, back when Jake was a simple recruit landing on the moon for the very first time.
The rookies were warned of all the flora and fauna that could kill them should they step outside the RDA’s compound, and Quaritch’s facial scar is highlighted as a visceral demonstration of how badly things can go wrong.
Jake’s opening line inAvatar: The Way of Wateralmost acts as a response to that - correcting Quaritch by pointing out that loving Pandora is far more likely to prove lethal than a poisonous plant or a hungry animal. Because of that parallel to the advice he received from Quaritch in the firstAvatar, it makes far more sense thatJake’s ominous warning inThe Way of Wateris actually a precursor to his own death, not Neteyam’s.
The line also puts James Cameron in a position where a happy ending for Jake Sully is narratively impossible. If a character openly spells out that the most dangerous thing about a place is falling in love with it, they’re highly unlikely to get a happily-ever-after in which they pass away peacefully surrounded by family members at a ripe old age.
Avatar: The Way of Water’s introduction sets the board in such a way that Jake’s love for Pandora must, one way or another, be the cause of his demise. The only question is when it’ll happen.
Why Avatar: Fire & Ash Is The Right Time To Kill Off Jake Sully
Jake’s Capacity For Intrigue Was A Three-Movie Deal
The biggestproblem with James Cameron’s firstAvatarmoviewas its lack of depth. Riding on a wave of three-dimensional euphoria and state-of-the-art CGI, 2009’s story left something to be desired. EssentiallyPocahontasin space,Jake Sully felt like a cookie-cutter protagonistbordering on a white savior trope.
Avatar: The Way of Water, in fairness, rectifies that issue to a certain extent, redefining Jake as a more conflicted, layered, and (ironically) three-dimensional creation. And yet it would still be a gargantuan stretch to suggest that the character of Jake Sully contains enough depth and longevity to sustain five or more movies.
Fire & Ashis surely the point where Jake’s intrigue as the leading figure of a sprawling movie series expires.Avatar: The Way of Wateralready started establishing Lo’ak - another of Jake’s sons - as a potential replacement, but with Spider and Kiri also coming to the fore with fascinating personal arcs,Avatarshows signs of evolving into more of an ensemblepiece.
All indications, including Jake’s opening words inAvatar: The Way of Water, point to the next movie being his swansong.
