The co-creator of The Dragon Prince teases the story details that will be teased out about the character Aaravos. The CGI animated series, which premiered on Netflix in 2018, is an original fantasy tale that follows human princes Callum and Ezran and elf assassin Rayla as they team up to protect the baby dragon prince Azymondias and hopefully broker peace in their land after a thousand years of turmoil. The show has currently aired three seasons with a fourth coming in November 2022. The voice cast of the series includes Paula Burrows, Sasha Rojen, Racquel Belmonte, Jesse Inocalla, Jason Simpson, and Jack DeSena, who previously voiced Katara's brother Sokka in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Aaravos is a major villain in the series, but even over the course of the show's three seasons, his nature has remained shrouded in mystery. Although he was a shadowy figure in season 1, his presence was made known in season 2 when Viren, the duplicitous advisor to King Harrow, begins to contact him through a magic mirror where he is imprisoned. He also makes contact through a magical caterpillar, and when Viren was resurrected with dark magic in season 3, the caterpillar began to undergo a metamorphosis that teased a potentially huge change in the way Aaravos can interact with the physical world in The Dragon Prince season 4.
Screen Rant had the opportunity to sit down for an exclusive interview with The Dragon Prince co-creator and executive producer Aaron Ehasz at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. He teased how important Aaravos is going to be in the upcoming season, reminding viewers that "Aaravos is the first voice you hear in the entire series." As he slowly begins to become a more active player in the story, the show will slowly provide the complicated answer to the question "What is going on? Why is he doing this?" Read Ehasz's full quote below:
Aaravos is the first voice you hear in the entire series, right? We don't see him in season 1, but Viren is obsessed with the mirror that is a portal to seeing him. He's introduced slowly and carefully, and now he's becoming much more active in what's happening.
We're going to see that and start to figure out, "What is going on? Why is he doing this?" The why is a big question that people will eventually have answered, and that's very complicated. And it's a beautiful story, I think.
The new season, which is titled Book Four: Earth, was recently revealed to be taking place after a time jump of two years. This is probably meant to reflect the delay between season 3 in 2019 and season 4 in 2022, which was likely impacted by the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. With that much narrative ground covered offscreen, there could potentially be a huge new threat coming from Aaravos depending on what form his power has allowed him to take.
Although Aaravos' power is clearly growing, it's possible that The Dragon Prince will continue to tease out his story tantalizingly slowly. The show has been confirmed to run for a full seven seasons, so there will be three more to follow once Earth premieres. This will certainly allow for the complicated answers Ehasz has teased to be delivered at a pace that keeps them obscure and out of reach for as long as possible.