Avatar 4's Villain Has Been Revealed: Who is Major Tyler Bukowski?

Thanks to the impressive box office numbers for Avatar: Fire & Ash, it seems guaranteed that director James Cameron will be getting to complete Avatar 4 and 5 after all. Thankfully fans can rest easy knowing that whatever story will be told to complete Cameron's saga, the franchise has already confirmed the one villain who can elevate the Avatar series to brand new heights.

The Biggest Threat To Pandora Isn't Earth, It's Tyler Bukowski

It's almost guaranteed that the majority of Avatar moviegoers will have never met or even heard of Major Tyler Bukowski, one of the most accomplished and dedicated leaders of the RDA (Resources Development Administration), playing a pivotal role in the military's mission to prepare Pandora for human colonization. But make no mistake: Bukowski has already distinguished himself as the most complex, intelligent, empathetic, and imposing antagonist of the series.

After a brief tease in the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora video game (set after the return of the RDA in Avatar: The Way of Water), Bukowski made his official debut in "From the Ashes," an expansion for the game set within the events of Avatar: Fire and Ash. And instantly became the most compelling villain the franchise had introduced yet.

Technically serving under command of Colonel Miles Quaritch (as both human and Na'vi Recombinant), Major Bukowski takes a completely different strategy to his commanding officer. And now that he's emerged as the central antagonist of Avatar: The Gap Year - Tipping Point, his promotion to the main antagonist of the Avatar sequels packs far too much potential to pass up.

So what is it that makes Tyler Bukowski a different breed of villain, and one that will evolve the Avatar series beyond the one-note, violent threat posed by Miles Quaritch? It all starts with his own motivations for coming to Pandora.

As A Believer, Bukowski is The Best Villain in The Avatar Franchise

In the first two Avatar films, little effort was spent on making Colonel Miles Quaritch any more complicated than he needed to be. A lifelong soldier following orders was motivation enough, with revenge upon Jake Sully added over time. While that has been developed in Avatar: Fire & Ash to transform Quaritch into something uniquely non-human, his official role as part of the RDA is almost fully dissolved.

As the only other 'foot soldier' established in the series canon so far, that makes Bukowski the logical successor. And unlike Quaritch, he has a deeply personal reason for bringing Pandora under human control: to save his daughter from a dying Earth, no matter the cost. But rather than using force to annihilate the native Na'vi and take their home for humanity, Bukowski is pursuing an alliance, a peace treaty, and a future of coexistence. By force, yes, if necessary.​​​​​​​

As a clear analogy for colonization in humanity's past, Bukowski proves more and more nuanced with every appearance. Learning the language of the Na'vi, appearing to have studied and value their customs, Bukowski is an intentionally problematic character. His lack of a simple, aggressive, evil, or violent-for-violence's sake mentality makes him infinitely more relatable than Quaritch. After three movies that alone justifies Bukowski as a terrific replacement.

But even if Bukowski is motivated just as much by family as Jake Sully, and no matter what his intentions or beliefs, his tactics and mentality still demonstrates the methods by which Europeans infiltrated, divided, and ultimately conquered North America (as just one example). Ultimately, audiences have to ask themselves: invading Pandora by brutal force is wrong... but is occupying Pandora respectfully, to save human lives any better? That's a question perfectly equipped to take Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 to completely new heights.

Avatar: The Gap Year - Tipping Point #3 is available now from Dark Horse.