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James Cameron is going from Fire and Ash to fire and brimstone. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron's project after finishing Avatar: Fire and Ash (the third film in the Avatar franchise) will be adapting demonic high fantasy The Devils, based on the Joe Abercrombie novel of the same name. And though the film will be new territory for both Cameron and Abercrombie (who has yet to see a film adaptation of his wildly popular fantasy novels), the plot will feature similarities to a property with which most franchise movie fans are familiar.

Namely, in DC Comics' Suicide Squad.

Published in May of 2025, The Devils is the story of Brother Diaz, warrior priest of a holy faction in a fictionalized Medieval Europe. The world Brother Diaz inhabits is besieged by flesh-eating Elves and controlled by power-hungry megalomaniacs, and in order to do something about it, Diaz's church has assigned him a powerful new flock. But these aren't angels and paladian's - Borther Diaz's group of adventurers is made up of warlocks, werewolves, and all-around weirdos. 

"Holy work," reads the official plot synopsis, "sometimes requires unholy deeds."

DC readers will immediately recognize the concept as one close to the Suicide Squad - a ragtag group of supervillains forced by the US government to perform dangerous (but more heroic) acts as a part of their punishment. Marvel also works with a similar concept in their Thunderbolts comics, although the film with the same name adapted the idea pretty loosely for the MCU.

That said, the origins of this idea can be traced back to a period before either team appeared on the comic book page, to the 1967 war flick The Dirty Dozen, about a group of convicts-turned-combat-elites in WWII. Obviously, it's a a concept that draws audiences in, as evidenced by the fact that Abercrombie's book has been announced for an adaptation (with one of America's great filmmakers, no less), just a month after its released.

"I’ve loved Joe’s writing for years," said Cameron in a statement, "cherishing each new read, throughout the epic cycle of the First Law books, especially Best Served Cold (LOVE IT!), and the Age of Madness trilogy [...] But the freshness of the world and the characters in The Devils finally got me off my butt to buy one of his books and partner with him to bring it to the screen."

Avatar: Fire and Ash comes to theaters December 19. 

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