| Vaas Montenegro | |
|---|---|
| Far Cry character | |
 Michael Mando as Vaas Montenegro in a promotional image for The Far Cry Experience web series | |
| First appearance | The Far Cry Experience (2012) |
| First game | Far Cry 3 (2012) |
| Created by | Jeffrey Yohalem Michael Mando |
| Portrayed by | Michael Mando |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Pirate, human trafficker |
| Relatives | Citra Talugmai (sister) |
| Origin | Rook Islands |
Vaas Montenegro is a character from Ubisoft's Far Cry video game franchise. He first appears as the secondary antagonist of the 2012 title Far Cry 3, and was extensively featured in promotional material for the game. Vaas is depicted as a capricious and mentally unstable character who antagonizes Far Cry 3's main character Jason Brody, and also serves as his dark psychological mirror. Vaas is later revealed to be a drug-addicted wayward member of the local community of the Rook Islands, the setting of Far Cry 3, who betrayed his people and aligned himself with the crime boss Hoyt Volker. Outside of Far Cry 3, Vaas' appearances include a live-action web series prequel called The Far Cry Experience, the virtual reality title Far Cry VR, and as the player character in Vaas: Insanity, a downloadable content (DLC) expansion for the 2021 title, Far Cry 6.
Conceived and designed by Ubisoft's development team as a villainous character who is comparable in stature to Star Wars's Darth Vader, Vaas is portrayed in all relevant media by Canadian actor Michael Mando. Mando decided to improvise for his audition and did not follow the developers' script, but they were so impressed by his performance that the character they had in mind was redesigned to match Mando's physicality. The game's story was eventually altered from the developers' initial intentions to accommodate a more frenetic, sociopathic villain in response to Mando's performance. The creative team worked in tandem with Mando to flesh out Vaas' characterization.
Vaas has been well received by the video game community and is often ranked on many lists of the best video game villains due to his depiction as an unhinged criminal. Mando's critically acclaimed performance was considered by many critics to be instrumental to the character's predominantly positive reception, and would influence the portrayal of villainous characters in subsequent sequels.