Avatar: Fire And Ash Will Introduce A Surprising New Villain
“We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.”
Avatar was never the most original film, but it made an impact all the same. The idea of callous colonizers seeking a new land to pillage will be timely no matter where you go, and such a simple set-up went a long way in acclimating audiences to the alien world of Pandora.
James Cameron proved its efficacy twice over with Avatar: The Way of Water, recycling Avatar’s original villains with a clever sci-fi twist. As potent as that choice might have been for the second movie, though, the third Avatar film will flip that premise on its head. Avatar: Fire and Ash sees the Sully clan exploring a new realm of Pandora and coming into conflict with another Na’vi tribe, the Ash People. In a surprise twist, Cameron has even chosen them to be the main adversaries.
Cameron recently sat down with Empire to explore the big changes coming to the Avatar franchise, starting with Fire and Ash’s shift in focus. “One thing we wanted to do in this film is not be black-and-white simplistic,” he said. “We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.” Instead of the human-led RDA rearing its head to plunder Pandora of its natural resources, Fire and Ash may find Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their kids primarily fighting with the Ash Clan.
Our first look at the Ash Clan in Fire and Ash concept art, created by Dylan Cole.
Empire unveiled new concept art from the threequel, giving us our first good look at Varang (Oona Chaplin), the chief of the “adversarial” tribe. “Varang is the leader of a people who have gone through an incredible hardship,” Cameron said. “She’s hardened by that. She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil.”
How the Sullys get caught in her crosshairs is a mystery Cameron would rather keep under wraps, but he is looking forward to audiences meeting Varang, and seeing Chaplin’s nuanced performance. “She’s an enemy, an adversarial character, but [Chaplin] makes her feel so real and alive,” Cameron added.
Seeing a Na’vi clan positioned as the main antagonists will definitely take some getting used to, but knowing Cameron, Fire and Ash will find ways to depict its “villains” with some sympathy. There’s even a chance the Ash Clan could be redeemed, and eventually team up with the Sullys against a common foe. The fight against the RDA isn’t finished yet, and if our heroes still plan to free Pandora from their clutches, they’ll need all the help they can get.
