Avatar 4 Will Expand Upon Varang's Most Ruthless Act From Avatar: Fire And Ash

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Easily the best part of James Cameron's latest "Avatar" film, "Fire and Ash," was Varang (Oona Chaplin), the witchy leader of the vicious Mangkwan Clan of Na'vi. Her people's home was destroyed in a volcanic eruption, causing Varang to turn her back on Eywa, the goddess of Pandora. 

In reality, though Eywa exists, she isn't a goddess in the metaphysical sense. She's the living planet-wide intelligence of Pandora, like an organic computer network (think Skynet from Cameron's "Terminator" films). Due to that, all life on Pandora has an appendage called a kuru, allowing them to "jack in" to Eywa. As "Fire and Ash" shows, this means dead Na'vi's consciousness can carry on after death if "backed up" into Eywa.

Varang shows the greatest mastery over her kuru yet; she can interface with other Na'vi and exert her will over them. She does have a goddess complex, which also explains why she and the Mangkwan are also shown cutting off defeated enemies' kurus; Varang is the only goddess they need.

The behind the scenes book "The Making of Avatar: Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, Avatar: Fire and Ash" by Joe Fordham explains that one idea for Varang is she would place her enemies' severed heads on spikes. Cameron, though, suggested the kuru severing, because for the Na'vi that is a fate worse than death. If their kuru is severed, they lose the ability to connect with Eywa or the souls of their ancestors. By depriving them of the ability to connect with Eywa, they're essentially barred from the afterlife.

The book also states that Varang has a cloak of many severed kurus (think the severed hair braids on the cannibalistic Antler Queen's royal outfit in "Yellowjackets"), which will debut in "Avatar 4."

While it'll be curious to see what exactly Varang's kuru cloak looks like, the more exciting detail here is that she will be returning for "Avatar 4." Hopefully, this time, it'll be as the main villain she was promoted as in the "Fire and Ash" marketing campaign. After forming her alliance with Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), she faded into the background a bit, mostly standing or fighting by her new mate's side. Quaritch's fate is ambiguous after "Fire and Ash" — he was last seen falling to seeming doom, but he didn't actually die onscreen.

That means there's definitely an opening to bring Quaritch back ... but maybe he should sit out the fourth movie, if only so Varang can properly ascend as the main villain. Varang was easily one of the best movie villains of 2025; Oona Chaplin's performance was powerful and intoxicating, while she added a new kind of player (a malicious, anti-Eywa Na'vi) to the "Avatar" franchise. If Quaritch is lost to her, then that only gives her more motivation to go after the Sully family. The ultimate karmic fate for Varang would probably be her having her own kuru severed, but we'll have to wait and see what's in store for her.

Now, Cameron has recently hedged a bit on if/when he'll be making "Avatar 4," specifically citing the high production costs. Personally, though, more Varang is all I need to get me back into the theater for a fourth trip to Pandora.