LOS ANGELES — The “Avatar” family extends far beyond the story of Neytiri and Jake Sully that are seen on screen.

The cast and crew of “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” who bring creator and director James Cameron’s vision to life for the franchise, have become a family of their own behind the scenes.

In an interview with ABC’s On The Red Carpet Storytellers Spotlight, Cameron reflected on how this sense of family has evolved over time.

“The films have very much become about family,” he said. “But we’ve been doing it for 20 years now. And every time we’re ready to make an ‘Avatar’ film, the whole ‘Avatar’ family gets back together.”

Cameron and his team are now inviting audiences back to Pandora with the third installment of the global phenomenon, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” arriving in theaters Dec. 19.

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The film brings back principal cast members such as Sam Worthington (Jake Sully), Zoe Saldaña (Neytiri), Sigourney Weaver (Kiri), and Stephen Lang (Quaritch).

Oona Chaplin joins the cast as Varang, the formidable leader of the Ash Clan. A new antagonist determined to dismantle the Sully family’s belief in Eywa, wielding violence and fire as her weapons.

“[Varang has] figured out a way to harness the power and the might of her people’s grief and pain and despair and turn it into fuel for their fire,” Chaplin explained. “And she will stop at nothing because fire stops at nothing. She’s spicy.”

Apart from new characters and storylines, one thing remains the same with the “Avatar” films: the grand impact of having the story brought to life.

“Every time I come back here, I realize why I love making movies,” Worthington said.

The magic that audiences see on the silver screen is the result of countless hands and minds working behind the scenes.

“You can’t talk about ‘Avatar’ without addressing the entire team,” Lang stated.

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One of the integral members of the “Avatar” family is Oscar Award-winning costume designer Deborah L. Scott, who has partnered with Cameron for many years across the “Avatar” and “Titanic” films.

Scott and her team ensure every costume begins as a tangible piece that actors can wear.

Each design undergoes motion tests to show how it interacts with elements like water or wind, which provide references for digital artists to replicate natural movement.

The craftsmanship behind these designs is nothing short of extraordinary.

Being introduced in “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is the Tlalim clan, also known as the Wind Traders, whose costume design is influenced by the environment that surrounds them.

“Totally handcrafted, hand-dyed, hand-tooled, real feathers,” Scott explained. “If you look down onto the Earth and saw tributaries of rivers, and/or looked up to the sky and saw wisps of clouds, this [Wind Traders costume] is something that might come to mind.”

Despite the advancement of technology in the “Avatar” franchise, Scott believes the heart behind costume design remains the same.

“We work with our hands, we create things with our minds, [and] we feel them with our hearts for the public to enjoy,” Scott added.

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World-building is another cornerstone of the “Avatar” experience, led by co-production designers Dylan Cole and Ben Procter.

Cole and Procter split up the work in a very clear-cut way. While Cole oversees all things Pandora, Procter handles all things human and planet Earth.

“Which of course includes all of the horrible machines that get to stomp on and burn and otherwise torture the beautiful stuff that this guy [Cole] makes,” Proctor said.

With a laugh, Cole added, “Which is also fun and therapeutic for me to see.”

Both the costume and production design teams draw inspiration from global cultures; studying traditional art, architecture, and symbolism to craft designs that feel authentic yet imaginative.

A world that is “not a single universal culture,” but instead “an assemblage of creativity,” Cole explains.

While costumes and world building bring physicality to Pandora, the performances are what breathe life into the story.

“The idea is that every single moment in the movie is represented by a real performance,” said Oscar-winning special effects supervisor Richard Baneham, while describing the motion capture process that has become a hallmark of the franchise.

The process involves roughly 180 ceiling-mounted cameras, up to 16 camera operators on set, and motion capture suits that track every movement; data that Baneham’s team later translates into the stunning visuals seen on screen.

“In our real lives, there’s no camera there,” Cameron explains. “So, the actors are able to take the characters and think of them, feel them and act through their characters as real people. And then we apply the cinema layer to that later.”

The synergy between costume, design, performance, and technology transforms “Avatar” into more than a franchise. It’s a living, breathing world crafted by hundreds of hands and creative minds working in harmony.

For Scott, that unity is what makes the experience so meaningful.

“That feeling of being together as a family to create a family is just so special,” she shared.

Watch ABC’s On The Red Carpet Storytellers Spotlight interview with the “Avatar: Fire and Ash” cast and crew that bring Pandora to life in the video player above.

Andres Rovira and Dean Singleton contributed to this report.

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of 20th Century Studios and this ABC station.