What Raya And The Last Dragon's Namaari Looks Like In Real Life
Disney's latest animated feature, Raya and the Last Dragon, takes inspiration from cultures across Southeast Asia to create a fantastical world of heroic dragons and evil monsters. Long ago in the world of Kumandra, humans and dragons lived together. "But when an evil force threatened the land, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity," per Disney's press release. The same force has returned, and now it's up to Raya (The Last Jedi's Kelly Marie Tran) to find the last dragon (Awkwafina) and once again save humanity. But first, she'll have to reunite the fractured lands of Kumandra.
Raya and the Last Dragon features a whole slew of Asian actors. The diverse cast represents many of the places Disney took inspiration from to create the fictional world of Kumandra. Besides Tran and Awkwafina, the film stars Golden Globe winner Sandra Oh, Lost's Daniel Dae Kim, Doctor Strange's Benedict Wong, and Dollhouse's Dichen Lachman. But who plays Raya's nemesis, Namaari?
Namaari is played by Crazy Rich Asians star Gemma Chan
Namaari, a warrior princess from the land of Fang who tries to stop Raya from reuniting the lands of Kumandra, is played by Gemma Chan, whose star has been on an upward trajectory for some time.
Chan is a British actress whose first breakout role was in Doctor Who. She portrayed geologist Mia Bennett in "The Waters of Mars," the penultimate episode with Tenth Doctor David Tennant. Chan stayed in the sci-fi fantasy lane with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, in which she played American witch Madame Ya Zhou. Gemma Chan also appeared in Captain Marvel as Kree sniper Minn-Erva. She'll return to the MCU in Eternals, playing Sersi.
However, her biggest international break was in Crazy Rich Asians, in which she played Astrid Leong-Teo. Chan garnered positive reviews as the cousin of leading man Nick. She seems to lead the perfect life but is actually devastated by her husband's affair. A post-credits sequence sets Astrid up as a lead in a proposed sequel, which is still in development. Translation? We're sure to see Gemma Chan again in the very near future.