Concept art from the original Avatar reveals an early design for Jake Sully’s Na’vi look, which was modeled on lead actor Sam Worthington.
Concept art from James Cameron’s original Avatar reveals an early look at Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully as a Na’vi. Released in 2009, Avatar would go on to become the highest-grossing movie of all time. The movie follows Sully, a marine, who joins forces with an alien race known as the Na’vi to fight back against a force of human invaders. Avatar was renowned at the time for its impressive visual effects and world-building, including the look of the Na’vi, the native inhabitants of Pandora.
Now, artist Joseph C. Pepe on Instagram has shared a piece of Avatar concept art, revealing an earlier iteration of Jake’s Na’vi appearance using Worthington’s face as a base.
In his caption, Pepe explains that the pictured design came after Cameron had already rejected several rounds of Jake concept art and that the look would still be further refined as development on the film continued. The post includes a carousel of images, including one showing off an actual sculpture that was made of Jake’s N’avi design.
What’s Next For Jake Sully In The Avatar Franchise?
After fully becoming a Na’vi and ditching his human body at the end of the first movie, Avatar: The Way of Water sees Jake trying to protect his family from returning human invaders by hiding out in Pandora’s ocean regions. The sequel’s ending sees the hero firmly announce that he’s done running and that he will stay and fight to protect his new home with the Metkayina. With Avatar 3 having already been filmed and two additional sequels in various stages of development, Jake’s journey in Cameron’s franchise is just getting started.
Avatar 3 will seemingly continue Jake’s fight against Quaritch and the RDA, but Cameron has already confirmed that the upcoming sequel will introduce a new clan of Na’vi into the mix. The Ash People, a new volcano-based clan of Na’vi, will serve as secondary antagonists, with the director confirming that this new group will complicate the “good Na’vi” versus “bad humans” dichotomy of the first two movies. With more friendly humans set to be introduced into the mix, it’s looking like Jake will gain some new allies and new enemies in Avatar 3.
In another big change from the first two movies, Avatar 3 won’t feature Jake as the narrator. His son, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), will serve as the narrator in the new movie and each of the following installments will also feature a new narrator to reflect the changing story points of view. While some of his family members will start to play larger roles in the larger Avatar story, Jake will seemingly still remain an integral part of Cameron’s franchise moving forward.
Source: Joseph C. Pepe