In Avatar (2009), Pandora is a moon of which fictional planet?

In Avatar (2009), Pandora is a moon of the fictional planet Polyphemus.

The film presents Pandora as a lush, inhabited moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. Its forests, floating mountains, wildlife, and bioluminescent ecosystems form the setting for the conflict between the Na’vi and human mining operations.

Pandora is not portrayed as a planet in the film’s fictional astronomy. It is a satellite orbiting Polyphemus, a gas giant. This detail is easy to miss because the story takes place almost entirely on Pandora’s surface and treats the moon as its central world.

James Cameron’s film uses this setting to combine science-fiction world-building with an environmental story. The Na’vi have a biological and spiritual relationship with Pandora’s ecosystems, while the human operation seeks the valuable mineral unobtanium beneath the moon’s surface.