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The best part of James Cameron’s latest “Avatar” film, “Fire and Ash,” was undoubtedly Varang (Oona Chaplin), the chief sorcerer of the vicious Mangkwan clan of Na’vi. His people’s home was destroyed in a volcanic eruption, forcing Varang to turn his back on Eywa, the goddess of Pandora.
In reality, even if Eywa exists, she is not a goddess in the metaphysical sense. She is the living intelligence of Pandora on a planetary scale, like an organic computer network (think Skynet from Cameron’s “Terminator” films). For this reason, all life on Pandora has an appendage called kuru, allowing them to “connect” to Eywa. As shown in “Fire and Ash”, this means that the consciousness of dead Na’vi can continue after death if “saved” in Eywa.
Varang shows the greatest mastery of his kuru yet; she can interact with other Na’vi and exert her will over them. She do having a goddess complex, which also explains why she and the Mangkwan are also shown cutting the kurus of defeated enemies; 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 that she would place the severed heads of her enemies on spikes. Cameron, however, suggested the separation of the Kuru, because for the Na’vi it is a fate worse than death. If their kuru is cut off, they lose the ability to connect with Eywa or with the souls of their ancestors. By depriving them of the opportunity to connect with Eywa, they are essentially excluded from the afterlife.
The book also states that Varang has a cape made up of many cut kurus (think of the cut hair braids on the cannibalistic royal outfit of Queen Antler in “Yellowjackets”), who will debut in “Avatar 4”.
Rejoice, Varang will return in Avatar 4
While it’s curious to see what exactly Varang’s kuru cape looks like, the most exciting detail here is that it will return for “Avatar 4.” Hopefully this time it will be as the main villain she was promoted like 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 alongside her new companion. Quaritch’s fate is ambiguous after “Fire and Ash” – he was last seen falling in a seemingly fatal situation, but he didn’t actually die on screen.
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 become the main villain. Varang was easily one of the best movie villains of 2025; Oona Chaplin’s performance was powerful and intoxicating, as she added a new type of player (a malevolent, anti-Eywa Na’vi) to the “Avatar” franchise. If Quaritch is lost to her, 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 cut off, but we’ll have to wait and see what awaits her.
Now, Cameron recently hedged a bit on the question of if/when he will do “Avatar 4”, specifically citing high production costs. Personally, though, more Varang is all I need to return to the theater for a fourth trip to Pandora.
