After the news that Matt Gerald‘s deceased Corporal Lyle Wainfleet will be returning, it seems as if the upcoming Avatar sequels were becoming a veritable Walking Dead, with almost every character who perished coming back. Now in a new interview with Empire, director James Cameron explains that not only is Stephen Lang’s badass bad guy Colonel Miles Quaritch coming back for all four sequels, he will be the MAIN VILLAIN in every single last one of them!
“The interesting conceit of the ‘Avatar’ sequels is it’s pretty much the same characters,” Cameron said. “There are new characters and a lot of new settings and creatures, so I’m taking characters you know and putting them in unfamiliar places and moving them on this greater journey. But it’s not a whole bunch of new characters every time. There’s not a new villain every time, which is interesting. Same guy. Same motherf*cker through all four movies. He is so good and he just gets better. I know Stephen Lang is gonna knock this out of the park.”
While we have no idea how the RDA (or some other evil entity) will bring back characters like Quaritch and Wainfleet, it will be interesting to find out. Will he be more machine than man? Maybe it’s simply cheaper and faster to revive a corpse rather than spend years flying someone else out to Pandora? And don’t forget Sigourney Weaver’s Dr. Grace Augustine will be returning as well, though no word on Michelle Rodriguez’s Trudy Chacón, who was pretty definitively blown up in the final battle of the first Avatar.
Other returning cast members for the Avatar sequels include Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Joel David Moore, Stephen Lang, Matt Gerald and Sigourney Weaver. Cliff Curtis and Oona Chaplin are also joining the sequels. The Avatar sequels will be produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau through their Lightstorm Entertainment. The James Cameron-directed sequels are written by Cameron along with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman, and Shane Salerno.
20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment recently announced new release dates for all four of the films via the official Avatar Facebook page, saying, “Great to be working with the best team in the business! Avatar takes flight as we begin concurrent production on four sequels. The journey continues December 18, 2020, December 17, 2021, December 20, 2024 and December 19, 2025!”
Released in 2009, the first Avatar film remains the highest-grossing film worldwide with over $2.7 billion in box office gross. It was dethroned by Star Wars: The Force Awakens as the highest at the domestic box office, pushing past Avatar‘s $760 million with a total of $936 million.
What do you guys think of Colonel Quaritch as the main villain in the Avatar sequels? How do you think they’re going to bring his character back? How would you like to see the Avatar story continue? We want to hear from you! Let us know in the comments or tweet us @ComingSoonnet.