Avatar's big bad was Stephen Lang's Miles Quaritch, a sinister military commander in the RDA who wanted to wipe out the Na'vi and impose humanity's rule over Pandora. Ultimately, he got his just desserts in a battle against Jake that culminated with Neytiri placing a couple of well-deserved arrows in his chest.
However, the villain has lived to fight another day.
From the second Lang's involvement in Avatar: The Way of Water was announced, fans of the franchise have wondered how he returns. Now, we finally have an answer.
The actor will return as Quaritch, albeit in a new body. As you can see from the still below, Lang's character has been given a new Na'vi body that, according to the actor, means he's "bigger, he’s bluer, he’s pissed off."
Talking to Empire Online, he'd add: "But there may possibly be an aspect of humility. When you take two Na’vi arrows in the chest, that’s gonna have some kind of effect on you. [He] was always a character who moved in straight lines and at right angles. But now he is as lithe as they come. He can move with the same kind of cunning and feral quality that any of the Na’vi can."
Apparently, the RDA has found a way to put the memories of human soldiers in "Recoms," Na'vi bodies that now house their consciousness. That puts the organisation's forces on an equal footing with Pandora's residents, and producer Jon Landau says, "They are coming back with an armada to take back the prized possession that they lost."
Now, they're stripping the resources from the planet's oceans, and with a manmade city and the ability to create weapons faster than ever before, this war is clearly about to heat up in a big way...
Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.
Directed by Avatar helmer James Cameron and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau, Avatar: The Way of Water stars Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement, and Kate Winslet.
To whet audiences' appetites, Disney/20th Century Studios will re-release Avatar in theaters on September 23. As for Avatar: The Way of Water, that arrives in theaters worldwide on December 16.