In James Cameron’s Avatar, Pandora is a moon orbiting the fictional gas giant Polyphemus.
Pandora is the main setting of the 2009 science-fiction film Avatar. It is inhabited by the Na’vi, a tall humanoid species whose society is closely connected to the moon’s ecosystems. The film follows former Marine Jake Sully as he enters the Na’vi world through an artificially grown avatar body.
Calling Pandora a planet is a common mistake because the film presents it as a vast world with forests, mountains, oceans, and complex life. In astronomical terms within the film’s fictional setting, it is a moon. Polyphemus is the larger planet around which Pandora travels.
The name deliberately recalls the Greek Pandora myth, but the film’s story is not a retelling of Hesiod. Its themes include resource extraction, colonial conflict, environmental damage, and the relationship between humans and the natural world. The fictional moon’s name is therefore an allusion rather than a literal continuation of the ancient story.