Stephen Lang as Colonel Quaritch in ‘Avatar’

As previously reported, director James Cameron, as well as stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, will begin work on the Avatar sequels in October of 2014. Also joining them will be Stephen Lang to reprise his role as the villainous Colonel Quaritch in all three films.

As fans of Avatar may remember, Neytiri (Saldana) killed Quaritch during the climax of the first Avatar. When asked how Quaritch could return from the dead, Cameron responded, “I’m not going to say exactly how we’re bringing him back, but it’s a science fiction story, after all.” Deadline, which broke the story, compared Quaritch to Darth Vader from Star Wars as well as the Terminator, fitting given that Cameron also directed Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Based on what little official word Cameron gave, there appears to be no explicit information that Quaritch will return as part machine/part man. We’re actually more inclined to invoke the comic book metaphor, where popular characters who die rarely stay dead for long.

Fans may also recall from the first movie, part of the Na’vi philosophy stated that all energy that sustained life was merely borrowed from Pandora and returned upon death. The returned energy contained the memories of the deceased and it is possible for later generations to access these memories. The sequels may expand on this idea in order to justify Quaritch’s return.