In James Cameron’s Avatar, Pandora orbits the gas giant Polyphemus.
Pandora is not a planet in the film’s setting; it is one of the moons of Polyphemus. Both bodies are located in the Alpha Centauri system, about 4.4 light-years from Earth in the fictional future of the story.
The gas giant is visible in Pandora’s sky and helps establish the moon’s astronomical setting. The film’s production design uses this relationship to create striking scenes, including views of the enormous planet and other moons from Pandora’s surface.
Polyphemus is a name borrowed from Greek mythology, where Polyphemus is a Cyclops encountered by Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. This mythological reference is distinct from Pandora’s ancient story, even though both names appear in Avatar’s invented planetary system.