In the film Avatar, the intelligent species living on the moon Pandora is the Na’vi. The Na’vi are tall, blue humanoid inhabitants whose language, communities, and relationship with their environment drive the film’s central conflict.
Humans travel to Pandora using avatar bodies: genetically engineered hybrids that combine human and Na’vi traits. These bodies allow human operators to move through Pandora and interact with the Na’vi, while the human expedition seeks valuable unobtanium beneath the moon’s landscape.
The Na’vi are not the same as the creatures called avatars in Hindu religious traditions, despite the shared word. In Cameron’s film, “avatar” refers to the remotely controlled biological bodies used by human characters. Pandora’s Na’vi culture and the film’s environmental themes are fictional creations, distinct from the ancient Greek Pandora story.