In James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar, Pandora orbits the fictional gas giant Polyphemus.
Pandora is not a planet in the film’s setting but a moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. It is depicted as a lush world inhabited by the Na’vi and containing valuable deposits of unobtanium, the mineral sought by the human mining operation.
The film’s visual world often leads viewers to call Pandora a planet, because most of the story takes place on its surface. In the fictional astronomy of Avatar, however, it is a moon orbiting Polyphemus. The name Polyphemus also recalls the Cyclops from Homer’s Odyssey, although the film’s gas giant is a separate fictional object.
Avatar was released in 2009 and became especially notable for its computer-generated environments, 3D presentation, and ecological themes. Pandora’s moon status is established in the film’s world-building material and related official sources.