Avatar 2: Sigourney Weaver Explains How She Returns After Grace’s Death (Exclusive)

December 14, 2022, 5:41pm

Sigourney Weaver as Kiri in 'Avatar: The Way of Water'

Avatar: The Way of Water is coming to theaters with a fair amount of mystery attached to its story – namely how certain characters (and the cast members that play them) are making a return for the long-awaited sequel. Not only is Stephen Lang’s villain character, Col. Miles Quaritch somehow returning after being killed in the first film, Sigourney Weaver is also returning to the franchise as Kiri, a teenage Na’vi girl adopted by Jake Sully and Neytiri. It’s been one of the wildest casting decisions to have Weaver (73) playing a teenager – let alone explaining how Kiri (and subsequently Weaver) is still even able to be in the franchise.

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Obviously, the story spoilers of how Sigourney Weaver returns in Avatar 2 are something fans will have to wait and see in the theater. However, when ComicBook.com got to talk with Weaver during the Avatar: The Way of Water press junket, she did at least explain how James Cameron convinced her to come back – and in this most unusual way:

“We had lunch together in 2010 and part of the reason we had lunch is we kind of wanted to spitball about this idea that maybe there’d be a girl character who had a relationship with Grace but that she felt more at home in the forest… So, we kind of talked about some basic thoughts about her,” Weaver explained. “We didn’t know about Spider [a new Avatar 2 character] and we certainly didn’t know any of the specifics, but just the idea, and Jim is crazy enough to cast me as a 14-year-old and as he said that day and several times afterward, ‘This is your natural age. You are 14, you are that immature. I know that about you.’”

Turns out that Cameron was right on the money, even if Weaver herself took some convincing:

“He [Jim] also knows that I’m a clown. And, and so I don’t think he was as worried as I was when he told me, I was like, ‘Alright, how am I gonna do this?’ But luckily I had plenty of time to figure out not only how to do it, but how I wanted to do it, which was not imitating a 14 year old, but really finding, unearthing my unhappy 14-year -ld in some ways and letting her exist in this space.

Indeed, Sigourney Weaver’s performance as Kiri is already looking like a breakout hit in Avatar: The Way of Water, possibly adding yet another iconic peformance to Weaver’s resume.