Who dies in ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’?

Avatar: The Way of Water has finally swam its way onto streaming, meaning anyone who performed the sacrilegious act of skipping it in theaters can finally tune in to James Cameron’s high-grossing sequel, complete with dazzling visuals and mediocre plotting.

If you’ve managed to avoid spoilers up until now, congratulations, but the whole point of Avatar movies is to go hang out on Pandora rather than get lost in any sort of story, so you weren’t missing a whole awful lot there. Nevertheless, a character death is a character death, and even if it’s not the easiest task in the world to emotionally connect with Way of Water‘s characters, a plot beat like that can catch even the most stoic viewers off guard.

Who dies in Avatar: The Way of Water?

Avatar: The Way of Water features just one major character death, and that’s that of Neteyam, the eldest child of Jake and Neytiri who gets shot trying to protect his siblings and Spider from RDA soldiers.

His demise sent a shockwave through his family, deepening the rift between Jake and his second eldest son, Lo’ak, who was partially responsible for the fatal situation, while Neytiri’s become inconsolable as a result proved to be an asset in the final moments of conflict against the humans. Later in the film, the family holds a traditional Metkayina funeral for Neteyam, and Jake visits his spirit by linking with Eywa.

Many nameless Na’vi, humans, and other resident Pandora species fall victim to the greedy violence perpetuated by the RDA, of course, but as far as major, plot beat-worthy deaths go, Neteyam is the sole recipient of such for Way of Water.

Avatar: The Way of Water is available to stream on Disney Plus and Max.