Jake, Neytiri, and the other Na’vi haven’t seen the last of Miles Quaritch.
Eight years ago, Stephen Lang’s bullish colonel terrorized Pandora as the head of RDA’s (Resources Development Administration) private security force, before ultimately ‘dying’ at the hands of Zoe Saldana’s Neytiri. But just as franchise mastermind James Cameron plans to bring back Sigourney Weaver for Avatar 2 and its many sequels, we’re now learning that Lang’s hardboiled military operative will continue to menace Jake (Sam Worthington) and the gang all throughout the Avatar saga. Perhaps Quaritch will be sporting some form of human exoskeleton in a few year’s time? Or will the antagonist go full cyborg in his mission to conquer Pandora?
Either way, ahead of production kicking off this fall, Empire sat down with James Cameron to discuss the long-in-development Avatar sequels, and Stephen Lang’s prominent role in all four films.
The interesting conceit of the Avatar sequels is it’s pretty much the same characters. 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 motherfucker 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.
On the topic of the ten-year wait between Avatar and its 2020 sequel – a wait that Cameron attributes to “mapping out the overall vision” – the illustrious filmmaker joked with Empire that it was Peter Jackson and his Hobbit trilogy that tipped him off to the idea of a five-part Avatar saga.
I said ‘It’s your fault I’m doing this, motherfucker!’ It’s one big story. But I would say a little bit different from The Lord Of The Rings, which you knew was a trilogy and that allowed you to accept a sort of truncated ending for movies one and two and then a fulfillment. This is a greater narrative broken up into four complete stories.
Elsewhere, we now have confirmation that Matt Gerald has officially signed on to reprise his role as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet. He’ll be rubbing shoulders with Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, CCH Pounder and Joel David Moore, along with newcomers Oona Chaplin and Cliff Curtis of Fear The Walking Dead.
Expect Avatar 2 to begin shooting this fall ahead of its release on December 18th, 2020. Following that, the third, fourth, and fifth instalments in Cameron’s sci-fi juggernaut will debut on December 17th, 2021, December 20th, 2024, and December 19th, 2025, respectively.
