Avatar 3 Will Star Game Of Thrones' Oona Chaplin As Varang, Leader Of The Ash People
Hot on the heels of "Avatar: The Way of Water," Empire Magazine already has a scoop about a key piece of casting news for the franchise's next sequel. "Game of Thrones" star Oona Chaplin was announced as a castmate for the sequels a full five years ago now, but details about her character are finally being made public. According to the March 2023 issue of Empire, the actress best known for playing Rob Stark's doomed wife Talisa will here play Varang, the leader of the Ash people.
If the Ash people don't sound particularly familiar, it's because they haven't been introduced yet. In December, director James Cameron did reveal to the French outlet 20 Minutes that the Ash people will be a fire tribe ("Avatar: The Last Airbender" called and it wants its, well, everything back) that isn't exactly as honorable and heroic as the Na'vi tribes we've seen so far. He told the outlet:
"I want to reveal the Na'vi from another angle because [so far] I have only shown their good sides. In the early films, there are very negative human examples and very positive Na'vi examples. In 'Avatar 3,' we'll do the reverse."
That reversal will apparently come courtesy of the Ash people, led by Chaplin's Varang. Empire calls her clan "an aggressive, volcanic race of people," and points out that the third film is set to show a dark side to the Na'vi and give the sky people, aka humans, some positive traits, too. As /Film's Hannah Shaw-Williams points out in the previous coverage linked above, this villainous race plot may not bode well for a franchise made by a white man that pulls huge swaths of its mythology from real Indigenous cultures.