Avatar: Fire and Ash Producer Hints at Unlikely Jake Sully–Quaritch Alliance as Oona Chaplin’s Varang Targets the Na'vi

Avatar: Fire and Ash is almost here, and yeah, it sounds like Cameron is trying to outdo The Way of Water. On top of that, one character you absolutely did not expect to team up with a Na'vi clan might be doing exactly that.

The scale is bigger, and the alliances are messier

Producer Jamie Landau told SFX magazine that Colonel Quaritch is still laser-focused on Jake, but the fight is no longer simple. The twist: Quaritch links up with the Ash People, a fire-aligned Na'vi clan. That combo matters because we are no longer talking about human grunts with big guns vs. Jake and the Omatikaya. This time, someone who understands Na'vi tactics may also be wielding human firepower. Translation: the action gets louder, faster, and meaner than last time.

"Making this alliance with the Ash People really steps up the stakes... What happens when somebody who knows [Na'vi] fighting tactics is now given the weapons of humans? The level of action that we're able to see in this one is quite a step up from The Way of Water."

Meet the Ash People (and their queen bee energy)

The movie introduces the Ash People, led by Oona Chaplin as Varang. Landau says Chaplin trained with the team on Na'vi movement, then made a bold choice that shaped the entire clan. Unlike other tribes, members of the Ash People tend to keep themselves under Varang's eyeline and physically look up to her. It's a power dynamic you can literally see in how they carry themselves.

There is a neat contrast here. Zoe Saldana basically set the physical language for the Omatikaya years ago, playing Neytiri with an emotional forwardness. Varang is the opposite flavor. According to Landau, Chaplin plays her as a leader who, in his words, 'leads right from her pelvis'—a grounded, force-through-the-core stance that changes how the character moves and commands space. The result, he says, is hard to look away from.

So... is Quaritch redeemable?

This is not the first time the franchise has hinted at more than a simple Jake vs. Quaritch death match. James Cameron has teased for a while that the dynamic between them gets knottier here, and that Jake might actually prefer to get Quaritch on side rather than just keep trying to kill each other indefinitely.

"Jake would rather have this guy on side... It is very uninteresting to just have two guys trying to kill each other for three movies, so it gets much snakier. Quaritch's soul is very much in play in movie three."

• New faction: the Ash People, a fire clan led by Oona Chaplin's Varang, with a distinct movement language and hierarchy.
• Big swing: action that's 'a step up' from The Way of Water, thanks to a Na'vi war tactician potentially armed with human-grade weaponry.
• Character pivot: Quaritch's arc is not a straight-line villain path; Cameron says the conflict gets trickier, and Jake may try to recruit rather than destroy.
• Release: Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters December 19.

If all of that plays out onscreen, expect a heavier, hotter, and frankly stranger third chapter—combat that hits harder, and a moral compass that spins a little.