Avatar: The Way of Water recently passed $2 billion at the worldwide box office, making the sequel a bona fide hit. Audiences have responded to the movie in a big way, despite the fact the visually stunning 3D epic felt an awful lot like filler ahead of the third instalment's planned release next year.
After being killed off in 2009's Avatar, Stephen Lang's villainous Colonel Miles Quaritch returned in the sequel, resurrected in Avatar form. Taking aim at Jake Sulley and his family, Miles was reunited with his now teenage son, Spider, and quickly seemed to bond with the boy.
At the end of Avatar: The Way of Water, Spider actually saved Miles' life before leaving, and franchise producer Jon Landau has suggested that their relationship could put Quaritch on the path to redemption.
"Spider has never really had a family and he’s been searching for that," he told Empire (via CBR). "In Quaritch 2.0, he can’t help but see a father he never knew, a kindred spirit. It’s also possible Quaritch’s relationship with Spider will bring about a transformation."
"What can he learn from Spider? Does he start to see Pandora differently? Jake did," Landau teased before going on to remind us that Edie Falco's General Ardmore will take centre stage in the follow-up. As you might imagine, the RDA has much grander ambitions for Pandora than Quaritch's mission of vengeance.
Like Jake, the villain can now experience Eywa, so between that and his apparent desire to win his son's approval, there's a very good chance Quaritch will eventually see the error of his ways. If so, he may be forced into an unlikely alliance with Jake in order to protect Pandora, the planet his son has called home since he was a baby.
Avatar 3 has already been shot and is currently scheduled to be released next December. Filmmaker James Cameron has plans for the franchise beyond that, with fourth, fifth, and sixth instalments in the early stages of development (he's even admitted to shooting parts of Avatar 4 in anticipation of cameras rolling in the not-too-distant future).
Do you think Quaritch can find redemption?