Why are the Na’vi blue?

Thirteen years after ‘Avatar’ (2009), James Cameron returns to Pandora and transforms the history of the Na’vi into a franchise with the release of ‘Avatar: The Path of Water’, a film released on December 15, 2022 that shows not only the new threats and dangers that Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña) and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) will have to face with their family after more than a decade on Pandora, as it also introduces a new clan: the Metkayina.

These new beings are introduced as the water clan. The tribe that is led by Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and Ronald (Kate Winslet) who live in the main village called Awa’atlu, have adapted biology so that they can live in the ocean and in coastal areas. For this, the tails of the Metkayina are thicker and have a tip that resembles an oar, in addition to having fins on the arms and green eyes.

Although they are totally different from the Metkayina, the Neytiri clan which is also known as the land tribe or Omaticaya and is composed of beings that have yellow eyes, long tails, almost 3 meters in height and bones naturally reinforced with carbon fiber, bears a great resemblance to the new civilization presented: both have bluish skin tone.

Why are the Na’vi blue?

Although the Metkayina’s color has a greener undertone, it is undeniable that their skin is blue like that of the Omaticaya. But, unlike the entire Pandora universe, the reason for choosing the tone is quite simple and was explained by Cameron during an interview with Empire magazine.

According to the statement, the selection process for the color of the na’vi ended up following an elimination order, as the filmmaker says that blue was the only color that had not yet been used to portray other characters in pop culture.

As for the color: green was chosen. There has been a long history of green aliens. Also, the Hulk. And the human colors, pink and brown, weren’t strange. SpongeBob was yellow. This pretty much turned it blue and purple. Purple is my favorite color, but I thought we should use it as one of our main bioluminescence colors, which we did, associating it with Eywa and anything sacred to the Navi,” said Cameron.

Still, that wasn’t the only reason the hue was chosen. That’s because, still in the interview, the director says that a rather strange dream of his mother also served as an inspiring source to define the color of the inhabitants of Pandora.

There was also a dream my mother had where she saw a 10 foot blue woman with 6 breasts. Cool, like a picture. I drew her, but found that 6 breasts didn’t look as good as thought, and so it would have been a problem with the rating. But, whatever it was… blue,” she recounts.