Way back in October 2013, director James Cameron confirmed thatStephen Langwill return as Colonel Quaritch in all of hisAvatarsequels. At the time, there were only three sequels, but now that there are four movies all moving forward, with production starting on September 25, the director revealed that his plans for Quaritch haven’t changed, confirming he will be appearing inAvatar 2throughAvatar 5. Here’s what the director had to say, revealing he plans to keep the same characters but introduce them to new settings and creatures.
“The interesting conceit of theAvatar sequelsis 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.”
Along with Stephen Lang, other confirmed cast members include returning stars such as Sam Worthington (Jake Sully), Zoe Saldana (Neytiri), Sigourney Weaver (Dr. Grace Augustine) andJoel David Moore(Norm Spellman), along with franchise newcomers Cliff Curtis (Tonowari) andOona Chaplin(Varang). The process of scheduling the cast for four sequels that are shot simultaneously has been described by Stephen Lang himself as a “Mongolian clusterf–k,” with James Cameron admitting that the inspiration for such an ambitious schedule was Peter Jackson shooting all of hisLord of the Ringsmovies simultaneously. Here’s what James Cameron had to say about what he told Peter Jackson about his schedule, in an interview withEmpire.
“I said ‘It’s your fault I’m doing this, motherf—er!’ It’s one big story. But I would say a little bit different fromThe 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.”
In related news, a new report from Deadline reveals that Matt Gerald, who played Corporal Lyle Wainfleet in the originalAvatar, will be back for all of theAvatarsequels. Since the character was believd to have died in the first movie, there is no word on how he’ll be brought back, but then again, Quaritch himself was thought to have died in the first movie, so it’s unclear how exactly both characters will be back for all four sequels. Hopefully we’ll get some new plot details when production starts next month.
We also reported in June that James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment has extended their deal with Christie Digital Systems to createglasses-free 3D projectionsystems forAvatar 2and all of his otherAvatarsequels. While this sounds like quite the monumental task, Lightstorm and Christie still have more than two years to get this system ready.Avatar 2hits theaters on July 07, 2025, withAvatar 3arriving August 06, 2025,Avatar 4coming July 15, 2025 andAvatar 5debuting June 03, 2025.
