Avatar Star Stephen Lang Opens up on His Character Returning for Sequels

The cast for James Cameron‘s Avatar sequels will be bringing back a lot of the same people previously seen in the 2009 feature film, and among them even the characters that didn’t make it out of that movie alive. It was previously confirmed that actor Stephen Lang will return as Miles Quaritch for the follow-up movies, perhaps all four of them, but considering he found himself on the business end of an arrow in the first film it’s….quite surprising. Speaking in a new interview though, Lang opened up about his reprisal and working with writer/director James Cameron once again.

“I think he’s an incredibly fascinating character and he wouldn’t be back if Jim Cameron wasn’t fascinated in him as well and kind of bent on seeing where he goes,” Lang told ComingSoon.net while talking about his new movie The Seventh Son. “Where does that character lead him as a writer, as a director? And where does it lead me as an actor? And so, I think you can absolutely look for some areas of extreme growth in the character; and then probably areas of regression in the character as well, hopefully, over a period of four more films. Of course, we need him to be very, very interesting, where, by the end you’ve taken a journey, or you’ve witnessed a character go on a life journey that was pretty interesting. You know, that you were glad that you could observe. So that’s what we’re trying to do.”

So how is his character back? It’s unclear since he was very dead in the first movie, but we’re talking about sci-fi world where humans have their minds and consciousness implanted into giant blue aliens, the sky is the limit.

Other returning cast members joining Lang in the film include Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, CCH Pounder, Matt Gerald, and Sigourney Weaver. New cast members include Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Oona Chaplin, David Thewlis, Vin Diesel, and CJ Jones.

The Avatar sequels were delayed by Walt Disney Studios back in July following a series of release schedule reshuffling by the studio. The still untitled second film was originally slated to debut on December 17, 2021 but is now set to arrive on December 16, 2022, all the other films have shifted back one year as well, though it’s still unconfirmed if Avatar 4 or 5 will happen as James Cameron has said previously.