Michelle Rodriguez refused James Cameron’s pitch to bring her back for ‘Avatar’ sequels

In James Cameron’s Avatar, Jake Sully led a dangerous battle against Earth’s Resource Development Administration, with many humans siding with him in the unjust war. Among them was Michelle Rodriguez’s valiant and dauntless fighter pilot, Trudy Chacón. A skilled pilot, Trudy proved her mettle in the final battle, taking down several enemy aircrafts, but was unfortunately shot down by Miles Quaritch, dying a hero. A decade later, Avatar: The Way of Water brought two major leads back from the original movie, with Stephen Lang’s Miles Quaritch returning from the dead, but Rodriguez didn’t make the cut. Fans might be wondering if she might get a chance to reprise her role in forthcoming sequels in the series, but that’s not going to happen.

In a conversation with Variety, Rodriguez revealed she was indeed approached by James Cameron about her reprising her role as Trudy, although it wasn’t an official meeting regarding casting her in the film. Still, Cameron reached out to the Fast & Furious actor when the two met recently and talked about possibly bringing Trudy back. But Rodriguez was quick to dismiss the idea right away. She told Variety,

“Dude, when I saw Jim [Cameron] recently, he was like, ‘I was thinking, “What if Michelle came back? A lot of the other characters came back [in ‘The Way of Water’].”’ I was like, ‘You can’t do that—I died as a martyr.”

Though significantly shorter than many others, Trudy’s character arc ended well, and gave her character a high-value presence in the story. But Rodriguez had a far more intriguing answer to justify her refusal to play Trudy again in Avatar sequels. She said,

‘I came back in ‘Resident Evil,’ I wasn’t supposed to. I came back in ‘Machete,’ I wasn’t supposed to. I came back with ‘Letty,’ I wasn’t supposed to. We can’t do a fourth [time]; that would be overkill!”

Rodriguez appears to be arguing that no one would have given it a second thought that Rodriguez came back from the dead in three different roles in her career, but that doing so a fourth time, especially when her character got a heroic ending, would be too much.

Trudy’s death was highly significant. She was one of the human allies of the Na’vi who wasn’t well acquainted with them yet chose to fight for them anyway. Her character proved that some humans understood that the RDA’s invasion was wrong and fought for the right side, even when it meant going against their own people. Her sacrifice truly meant a lot for the underlying message of the film.

If James Cameron wants to bring Rodriguez back, it could be in a different role, like he did with Sigourney Weaver. It seems he had plans for the actress to return, but they got shelved when Rodriguez declined the idea. The Avatar sequels are heading in a varied direction of spaces and arcs, with the point-of-view shifting from Jake to other narrators. If there’s anywhere Rodriguez can return, it has to serve the story freshly and differently.