Fans Wish The Na'vi Language Was More Prominent In Avatar 2

Outside of the series' remarkable visual effects, perhaps one of the most impressive aspects of the "Avatar" franchise is the way in which director James Cameron has made Pandora feel like a real world that is remarkably distinct from Earth. One major factor of this realism is the way in which Cameron has made the alien race known as the Na'vi seem believable and grounded — complete with their own culture and society.

Indeed, the recently-released "Avatar: The Way of Water" expanded upon this by introducing a brand new clan of the Na'vi known as the Metkayina, who have built their society around living in harmony with Pandora's oceans and sea creatures. The introduction of the Metkayina helped make Pandora feel even more like a real place, as it opened up the possibility of more Na'vi societies being scattered across the planet itself.

Although "Avatar: The Way of Water" provided new information about Na'vi society and helped reinforce the realistic nature of the Na'vi, some fans online still wish that one aspect of Na'vi culture would have been featured more prominently in the sequel — the Na'vi language itself.

Despite all of the worldbuilding in "Avatar: The Way of Water," the movie itself is primarily in English. As pointed out by @CountVolpe on Twitter, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) claims he's been speaking Na'vi so long it now sounds like English –- something that did not go over well with fans online. "Release the Na'vi language dub of 'Avatar: The Way of Water,'" @blockbustedpod wrote. This sentiment was shared by other fans as well, like @ultron90, who "wished there were more Na'vi dialogues (and dialects?) instead of English autotranslations." 

"The only thing that irked me about 'Avatar: The Way of Water,' is that they didn't speak the [Na'vi] language," @boggosbinted wrote, "how u got everyone speaking English after assimilating into the [Na'vi] culture." Considering the fact that the film's predecessor was all about breaking away from colonialism, it does seem rather odd that the Na'vi language has been pushed aside for English, especially when considering the immense amount of work that went into crafting said language.

According to Insider, James Cameron worked with linguistics expert Paul Frommer to carefully construct the Na'vi language. Together, they pulled influence from Polynesian/Maori languages, African languages, Indigenous languages, and Latin. They also used German sentence construction as the base for the Na'vi language. Considering the intensive work that went into crafting this language and the core message of the original film, it makes sense that fans are upset that the Na'vi language wasn't featured more often throughout "Avatar: The Way of Water."