Six villains have been confirmed to appear in Avatar: Fire and Ash, including a brand-new Na'vi tribe. Previous Avatar movies centered on human villains from the Resources Development Administration (RDA), originally looking to mine Pandora for its valuable Unobtanium, but eventually hoping to seize control altogether to colonize the Na'vi homeworld. While the Na'vi will contend with threats from mankind once more in Fire and Ash, there also looks to be civil war brewing as the fire-based Ash People will reject the Eywa faith and clash with other tribes.
Avatar 3 will officially bring back 11 major characters from the 2009 original and 2022's The Way of Water to continue the storyline. Fans of the James Cameron-directed sci-fi saga will be aware that the story won't end with the December 19, 2025 release, with Avatar 4 and 5 set for December 2029 and 2031. In the meantime, franchise mainstays, such as Sam Worthington's Jake Sully, Zoe Saldaña's Neytiri, Sigourney Weaver's Kiri, Jack Champion's Spider, Kate Winslet's Ronal, and more, will be returning on the friendly side of things.
All 6 Villains Confirmed for Avatar: Fire and Ash (So Far)
Varang's Ash People
Game of Thrones' Oona Chaplin will lead Avatar: Fire and Ash's antagonistic front as Varang, the aggressive leader of the Mangkwan clan, aka the Ash People.
Varang will break a franchise trend as she becomes Avatar's first Na'vi villain whose people have endured "incredible hardship," and she prepares to do "things that we would consider evil," James Cameron told Empire:
“Varang is the leader of a people who have gone through an incredible hardship. She's hardened by that. She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil. One thing we wanted to do in this film is not be black-and-white simplistic. We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm,”
Colonel Miles Quaritch
Colonel Miles Quaritch has already been bested by the Sullys twice in the Avatar franchise, with his first loss seeing him reborn into a Na'vi body. It's unclear what comes next for Stephen Lang's symbol of colonial hostility in Fire and Ash, but he looks to be on the warpath against the Sullys once again.
Exclusive Avatar 3 footage shown off at CinemaCon in April hinted at an epic face-off between Quaritch and Jake Sully. Additionally, Quaritch will seemingly be aligning himself with Varang and the Ash People against the Sullys in an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation, continuing his vendetta toward the Na'vi family
General Frances Ardmore
Edie Falco's General Frances Ardmore is the commander of military operations for the RDA on Pandora, leading the efforts to colonize the Na'vi homeworld. While Quaritch looks to be on a personal vendetta in Fire and Ash, Ardmore may serve as the new face of the human threats and their mission to seize Pandora.
In the Avatar 3 trailer, the RDA looks to have Jake Sully in its clutches as he was perp walked past an ecstatic crowd of cheering humans. There is every chance Admore will be the one Sully answers to after his imprisonment, but where things go past there is unclear, with some theorizing the Avatar icon may be killed off.
Corporal Lyle Wainfleet
Corporal Lyle Wainfleet worked as a human mercenary for the RDA, who was originally killed by Pandoran wildlife in Avatar's battle at the Tree of Souls. While he was brought back in Na'vi Avatar in The Way of Water to pursue Jake Sully, that landed him thrown overboard and speculated to be dead.
But, unfortunately for the Sully family, Wainfleet is alive and back to wreak havoc on their lives in Avatar 3 as the right-hand man to Colonel Quaritch.
Mick Scoresby
Brendan Cowell's Mike Scoresby is the captain of the SeaDragon, a Tulkun-hunting vessel that recently had its sights on Payakan. While The Way of Water left many believing Scorseby had died when the Tulkun caused him to lose an arm and be thrown underwater, he will be returning in Fire and Ash.
Having left Avatar 2's climactic battle one limb down, Scoresby may be on the warpath for revenge against Payakan in the 2025 blockbuster.
Parker Selfridge
Ted star Giovanni Ribisi will return in Fire and Ash as Parker Selfridge, the RDA's head administrator who was replaced after Avatar by Charles Stringer (whose potential appearance in the third installment remains unconfirmed).
While Selfridge represented the danger of human greed in Avatar, he has seemingly now lost his high-ranking position at the RDA. Despite that, producer Jon Landeau hinted to The Wrap that he will be "back in force as we move forward," indicating he may be looking to monetize more Pandoran resources:
"I think we’ll definitely see more of the RDA as we move forward. We know that Giovanni’s coming back as Selfridge. We hinted at him with just on a video clip in this movie. But he will be back in force as we move forward."
