Star Trek star Michelle Yeoh, who appears in Discovery and soon her own spinoff, will play scientist Dr. Karina Mogue in James Cameron‘s Avatar sequels, THR reveals.
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“Throughout her career, Michelle has always created unique and memorable characters. I look forward to working with Michelle to do the same thing on the Avatar sequels,” writer-director Cameron said in a statement.
Yeoh, perhaps best known for her role as Yu Shu Lien in the Ang Lee-directed martial arts hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, has also appeared in the Pierce Brosnan-led James Bond entry Tomorrow Never Dies and, most recently, as Eleanor Young in blockbuster romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians.
The next two Avatar sequels, planned for December 2020 and December 2021, will feature returning stars Zoe Saldana (Avengers: Infinity War), Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation), Stephen Lang (Don’t Breathe), and Sigourney Weaver (Aliens).
The first sequel will reunite Cameron with Titanic leading lady Kate Winslet and includes Fast and the Furious and Guardians of the Galaxy star Vin Diesel, who revealed he boarded the franchise in an early April Instagram post.
Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 are “well into production,” producer Jon Landau previously told ComicBook.com, though the planned fourth and fifth entries have not yet received the official green light.
“We’ve completed our performance capture with Sam and Zoe and Stephen Lang and Cliff Curtis and Sigourney Weaver and a great group of young kids,” Landau said.
“We’ve been capturing not just on a stage but in a 500,000 gallon water tank, below the water, above the water. Jim has written into the scripts all of the stuff that people would expect from an Avatar sequel. A story that completes itself, an emotional journey in a world like you’ve never seen.”
Landau is confident new franchise owners Disney, who acquired Avatar when it purchased Fox for $71.3 billion, will complete the five-movie saga as envisioned by Cameron, whose Avatar and Titanic are the top two highest-grossing movies of all time with a respective $2.787 billion and $2.187 billion.
“If Fox made the choice to sell we’re very glad it was to Disney,” Landau said.
“We’ve had now a six-year plus relationship with Disney building Pandora, the World of Avatar in Orlando. They got to know us, we got to know them. [Disney CEO] Bob Iger is thrilled with the collaboration that we’ve had in creating Pandora which is the highest rated land and attractions and food service, QSR, that they’ve ever had. So we are looking forward to a very exciting future with Disney.”
Avatar 2 opens December 18, 2020.
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