Avatar 2 introduces a major new character: Kiri, played by Sigourney Weaver, who also played Grace Augustine in the first movie – but who is she in The Way of Water, and why is she important?
Weaver and James Cameron’s partnership hasn’t been extensive, but it is significant. In 1986, she reprised her role as Ellen Ripley in Aliens, an action-packed sequel to the sci-fi horror classic, armed with one of cinema’s best lines: “Get away from her, you bitch.”
They reunited for 2009’s Avatar, still the highest-grossing movie of all time to this day. She played Dr Grace Augustine, an RDA researcher fascinated by Pandora’s ecosystem and the spirituality within its geography, particularly with the Tree of Souls.
She’s teamed up with Cameron once again for Avatar: The Way of Water, but she’s stepped into the skin of a brand-new character: Kiri – so let’s break down who she is in the sequel. Spoilers for Avatar: The Way of Water to follow…
Who is Kiri in Avatar 2?
Kiri is the “half-breed” daughter of Grace Augustine, who died from a gunshot wound in the first movie. Kiri’s conception remains a “complete mystery”, and it’s not yet known who her biological father is.
Grace’s Avatar is incubated in a capsule, where it’s being studied by Norm and Max. Kiri often visits her, climbing on top of the tube and trying to embrace her mother.
Meanwhile, Jake and Neytiri have adopted Kiri as one of their own, alongside Neteyam, Lo’ak, and Tuk. There’s also Spider, a young human boy who’s also a child of Pandora, who can you read more about here.
Much like Jake and Grace’s Avatars, Kiri has humanoid features, like five fingers instead of four. However, she believes she has a close spiritual connection to Eywa, the Great Mother of all life on Pandora. “I can feel her heartbeat,” she tells Jake, and when she lies down in the forest, the grass and woodsprites pulse around her.
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There’s one problem, though: when she attaches her hair to the underwater tree of souls with the Metkayina clan, she finds her mother in a dream, but the intensity of the vision causes a seizure that nearly kills her. Norm tells Jake it’s a form of epilepsy, which may be true, but Kiri clearly has some form of connection to a higher power as she can summon the might of any life around her, big or small, with ease.
In an interview with Screen Rant, Sigourney Weaver explained: “There’s definitely a transfer of the curiosity and the love of nature. Grace much prefers to be in Avatar form and be out in the forest and studying things, and I think Kiri has a different way of expressing all that.
“She is just one with nature. And where that comes from, I’m not sure. But it’s very much in the script, and luckily in the movie you will get to see her try to make more of a connection with Grace.
“I think there is a scene where she talks about hearing Eywa’s breathing. I wasn’t really sure what happened to Eywa when Hometree is destroyed, but clearly she still exists in some form.
“Eywa is [why] Kiri can hear things that other people don’t hear. I think it makes Kiri quite uncomfortable, but I think because she’s so sensitive to all of nature that she would also be sensitive to Eywa.”
Avatar: The Way of Water is in cinemas now. You can read our review of the movie here, learn the best way to watch it here, and find out more about the sequel here.
