James Cameron's movies have a way of challenging the film industry, and what it's visually capable of. The Avatar franchise (which is streaming with a Disney+ subscription) is no exception, and the trailer for Fire and Ash introduced fans to a new tribe of Na'vi and the villainous Varang. Although the actress who plays her dropped F-bomb about her character that might have me changing my mind about her.
What we know about Avatar: Fire and Ash is super limited, which is why the first footage was so thrilling for moviegoers. For the first time we're going to see tribes of the Na'vi in conflict with each other, thanks to the entrance of the Mangkwan aka the Ash People. Oona Chaplin plays the leader Varang, and spoke to Empire about why she's become more aggressive and left the Na'vi's God Eywa behind her. In her words:
They got hit by a natural disaster and what Varang did was say, ‘Well, fuck Eywa.’ She basically goes towards a different power, and tries to harness that, and in so doing kind of raises her people out of misery. It’s easy to fall into the villain mentality, but actually she’s the hero of her people. Because she’s saved them out of misery and starvation and begging.
Suddenly things are making more sense. Trauma has a way of impacting survivors, and the way that the Mangkwan suffered would definitely be a life-changing experience in-universe. The deity Eywa is believed to be a living consciousness that's connected to all of the ecosystems and nature of Pandora. So a horrifying natural disaster must have felt like a huge betrayal to the Ash People. Talk about a loss of faith.
I have to wonder if we'll get a flashback of what the Ash People went through, and exactly how Varang and the tribe were forced to change their belief system altogether. And I assume that this is how the group if Na'vi are eventually able to use fire to their advantage, especially in the midst of battle.
The footage for Fire and Ash is limited, but Jake, Neytiri, and their family definitely look out of their depth with the Mangkwan. Varang is particularly terrifying, especially as she torments our heroes about Eywa having no power with them. In that same interview, Chaplin explained how she stayed in the character's dark mindset while filming, offering:
I kind of covered my whole trailer with very vivid and disturbing images of the kind of trauma that Varang would have gone through.
Since the Avatar franchise uses extensive visual effects to bring the world to life, Chaplin had to use her own determination and personal work to play Varang. She didn't have costumes or sets to help her transform, so instead she decked out her trailer and listened to metal in order to keep her in the right headspace.
These efforts will be revealed when Avatar: Fire and Ash hit theaters on December 19th as part of the 2025 movie release list. Chaplin is expected to appear in the fourth movie too, so we should get used to this newcomer.
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