Our Intergalactic Nightmare Is Over — Payakan Is Back

And when the universe needed him most, he returned to us. Payakan, the sensitive, misunderstood bad boy of Tulkun society first introduced in Avatar: The Way of Water, will return “at the very highest level” for the third film in the franchise, Avatar: Fire and Ash, which debuted a first look at footage at CinemaCon 2025. We have the vibrant Payakan fandom to thank for it. “He’s turned out to be one of the most popular characters,” VFX supervisor and Avatar EP Richard Baneham told Empire in a story about the making of the third film in James Cameron’s franchise. “The reaction emboldened us to go forward and play Payakan at the very highest level.” And OME (Oh my Eywa), he’s getting a girlfriend. Sorry, ladies, he’s taken!

In the 2022 film, Payakan is an outcast, exiled from his complex space-whale society for seeking vengeance against the barbaric humans who killed his mother, famously telling his Na’vi friend Lo’ak that the memory of the incident was “too painful.” While his violent actions went against the pacifist Tulkun Way, those maverick, go-getter qualities are exactly what allow him to save his fellow Tulkun from evil whalers toward the end of the film. He’s sort of a Luigi figure but a whale. In Fire and Ash, audiences will meet Payakan’s new companion, a female Tulkun named Ta’nok. Baneham says she’s “another outcast” and that “There’s a really great dynamic between them.” Sounds like Pandora’s new “It” couple.

Audiences will also meet the leaders of this Tulkun clan, named Matriarch and Patriarch. These thrilling new insights into the Tulkun way of life will hit theaters on December 19, 2025. Only 258 sleeps until Payakan!

• [Empire]

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