I’m a big Stephen Lang fan, but I’m not sure I can get behind some new news that just came out of an interview between James Cameron and Empire Magazine about the role he’ll play in the upcoming Avatar Sequels:
“The interesting conceit of the Avatar sequels is it’s pretty much the same characters. There are new characters and a lot of new settings and creatures, so I’m taking characters you know and putting them in unfamiliar places and moving them on this greater journey. But it’s not a whole bunch of new characters every time. There’s not a new villain every time, which is interesting. Same guy. Same motherfucker through all four movies. He is so good and he just gets better. I know Stephen Lang is gonna knock this out of the park.”
As to where the idea came from, it seems we can look to Weta’s Peter Jackson.
“I said ‘It’s your fault I’m doing this, motherfucker!’” He recalls. “It’s one big story. But I would say a little bit different from The Lord Of The Rings, which you knew was a trilogy and that allowed you to accept a sort of truncated ending for movies one and two and then a fulfillment. This is a greater narrative broken up into four complete stories.”
Avatar is one of those movies where I don’t meet minds with the majority of society. The plot was a re-tread and the effects, while stunning, were destined to feel dated on future rewatching. Now, the idea that the villain… who died in the first movie, by the way, would be continuing on as the Vader the Avatar franchise feel a little less than inspiring.