Colonel Quaritch Will Be In All Four Avatar Sequels (Despite Being Dead)

Well, here's something I didn't expect to read this morning. Colonel Quaritch is apparently still menacing the Na'vi, despite the notable handicap of being dead.

That's right, the villain of Avatar is back, and this isn't rampant speculation stretching the words of James Cameron; it comes direct from the direhorse's mouth. Talking with Mashable for the release of Don't Breathe, Stephen Lang said his character will feature in all four Avatar sequels:

Well, I can say because it’s a matter of public record, that the character of Colonel Quaritch is important in each of the films — Avatar 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Urgh. That "public record" stuff he's referencing is previous comments from Cameron years ago, but I didn't actually think he was going to follow through, nor that it'd be a sequel quadrilogy deal (and not just a sex-tree vision).

I've been suspect of making so many more Avatar movies ever since two-became-three-became-four - as a cultural movement it proved to be very flash-in-the-pan and Cameron simply waited too long to get the sequels off the ground for people to care - but bringing back the movie's big bad, who was oh-so-crucially killed by Zoe Saldana's spears at the end of the film, is misreading what audiences connected with.

Are we going to be getting an Agent Smith deal here, where the one-shot antagonist becomes this maniacal, universe-dominating force? Because if so, Cameron's greatly overestimated the iconography of his incredibly generic military type. Count me sceptical until we hear more.

Avatar 2 is (allegedly) set for release in 2018.