Stephen Lang is the Villain in All the ‘Avatar’ Sequels

You can’t keep a good bad guy down.

The four sequels to Avatar are getting closer and closer to becoming a reality and James Cameron has decided to drop some actual information about the plot for a change. The director told Empire in a recent interview that Miles Quaritch, the warmongering Colonel who tried to eliminate the Na’Vi in the original Avatar, will be back… and he’ll be the main villain in all four films.

“The interesting conceit of the Avatar sequels is it’s pretty much the same characters,” James Cameron says. “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.”

Stephen Lang’s return to the series is not news, but his heavy involvement throughout the series certainly is, since – SPOILER ALERT FOR THE ONE OF THE MOST WIDELY-VIEWED MOVIES EVER MADE – he freakin’ DIED at the end of the original film.

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Of course, this is Avatar, and it’s wholly possible that some incredible technology exists that could resurrect Col. Miles Quaritch, or download his brain into a robot body. Heck, it’s also possible that the planet Pandora could absorb his body and consciousness, and that he could return as a planet monster or even another Na’Vi. Would anyone really be surprised?

Stephen Lang is, of course, a welcome addition to any cast. The grizzled but impressively sensitive actor has been one of Hollywood’s secret weapons since the 1980s, with impeccable but often-overlooked supporting roles in celebrated films like Manhunter and Tombstone. Even after the release of Avatar, Stephen Lang has focused primarily on character-driven supporting roles, although he did have an opportunity to take center stage and scare the hell out of audiences in last year’s pulse-pounding thriller Don’t Breathe.

We’ll see how the science-fiction series progresses, and just how Miles Quaritch returns, in the upcoming Avatar sequels, which are due in theaters on ecember 18, 2020, December 17, 2021, December 20, 2024 and December 19, 2025.

 

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Top Photo: 20th Century Fox

William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on Canceled Too Soon and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.

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