{"id":30086,"date":"2025-07-28T19:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T19:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/30086\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T19:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T19:24:08","slug":"fire-and-ash-villain-varang-is-hero-of-her-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/30086\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire And Ash Villain Varang Is \u2018Hero Of Her People\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we\u2019ve learned in the Avatar saga so far, the Na\u2019vi are not a monolith. The giant blue inhabitants of Pandora consist of various peoples, whose relationship with the land varies wildly. The first film<\/a> brought us the Omatikaya and their sprawling Hometree, a clan firmly in tune with the lush jungle; The Way Of Water<\/a> introduced the Metkayina, who have developed alongside their relationship with the oceans, from their aquamarine skin-tone to their flipper-like webbed hands. Now, in Avatar: Fire And Ash<\/a>, we\u2019ll meet the Mangkwan clan<\/a> \u2013 a Na\u2019vi faction whose existence on Pandora has not been so harmonious.<\/p>\n

The Mangkwan, or Ash People, will play a more antagonistic role in the Avatar saga, hardened by a tragedy that has left them less-than-enamoured with Pandora\u2019s spiritual entity, Eywa. \u201cThey have a bunch of unresolved trauma,\u201d says Oona Chaplin, who plays their leader Varang<\/a> \u2013 set to be a formidable force in Fire And Ash. \u201cThey got hit by a natural disaster and what Varang did was say, \u2018Well, fuck Eywa.\u2019\u201d Where the Omatikaya and Metkayina both believe deeply in the interconnectedness of Pandora\u2019s ecosystem, Varang has led the Mangkwan down another path. \u201cShe basically goes towards a different power, and tries to harness that, and in so doing kind of raises her people out of misery,\u201d Chaplin explains. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to fall into the villain mentality, but actually she\u2019s the hero of her people. Because she\u2019s saved them out of misery and starvation and begging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the role took Chaplin to dark places, sending her to \u201ca really weird headspace\u201d for a while. \u201cI kind of covered my whole trailer with very vivid and disturbing images of the kind of trauma that Varang would have gone through,\u201d she reveals. She also assembled an intense playlist to channel some vengeful energy. \u201cI got really into throat-singing with Varang, and I got really into Slipknot,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019d never really gone into death metal, and probably Slipknot is laughable to some people: \u2018Oh, that\u2019s so mild\u2019,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it was pretty hardcore for me.\u201d Off-screen, the character proved hard to shake. \u201cShe did seep into my psyche a little more than I had anticipated,\u201d Chaplin laughs. \u201cIt was okay. I didn\u2019t rip anybody\u2019s head off.\u201d Thank Eywa for that.<\/p>\n

\"Empire<\/p>\n

Read Empire\u2019s full Avatar: Fire And Ash story \u2013 going to Avatar HQ for two days with James Cameron as he works on the film, also featuring new cast interviews, never-before-seen images and more \u2013 in the September 2025 issue<\/a>, on sale Thursday 31 July. Pre-order a copy online here<\/a>. Avatar: Fire And Ash comes to UK cinemas from 19 December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we\u2019ve learned in the Avatar saga so far, the Na\u2019vi are not a monolith. The giant blue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337],"class_list":["post-30086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}