Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third movie in James Cameron’s blockbuster franchise, is picking up the pace ahead of its December release with the reveal of its antagonist and confirmation that its debut trailer will be shown with The Fantastic Four: First Steps in theaters this weekend.
The image, below, shows Varang, leader of the Na’vi Mangkwan Clan, aka the Ash People. Played by Oona Chaplin (Talisa Maegyr in Game of Thrones), Varang and her clan have forsaken the Na’vi deity Eywa after a volcano left their homeland a desolate wreck covered in ash.
Speaking to Empire magazine back in January, Cameron said of the character: “Varang is the leader of a people who have gone through an incredible hardship. She’s hardened by that. She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil. One thing we wanted to do in this film is not be black-and-white simplistic. We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.
“[Oona Chaplin] is so good that I didn’t quite appreciate how good her performance is until we got the Wētā animation back. She’s an enemy, an adversarial character but [Chaplin] makes her feel so real and alive.”
Later, in April, Cameron expanded on what to expect from Avatar: Fire and Ash. “The Sully family are really put through the ringer on this one as they face not only the human invaders, but new adversaries: the Ash People,” Cameron said at CinemaCon.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps, meanwhile, comes out July 25 and kickstarts Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Expect to see the Avatar 3 trailer ahead of it.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.