Stephen Lang on James Cameron's Request to Reprise His Role in 'The Way of Water'

The highly awaited sequel to James Cameron's Avatar is due to be released by Disney, and fans are ecstatic. Avatar was released more than 10 years ago and soon became the most giant earning picture of all time, only to be surpassed by Avengers: Endgame and reclaimed by the Marvel Studios blockbuster. Avatar: The Way of the Water is expected to have a major box office impact, thanks to its fantastic returning ensemble, which includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, and Stephen Lang. The latter died at the hands of Saldana's character in the previous film, thus his reappearance may seem surprising. Lang wasn't expecting Cameron to call, so when he did, he didn't hold him to it. Lang expressed his response to being asked to return for the sequel in a recent interview.

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"James Cameron never promised me I would be in Avatar 2," Lang told the website. 

"He told me I'd be there; I asked for no guarantees, and he didn't make any. He has previously said that the character of Colonel Quaritch will be returning. Of course, I was glad and excited because, as you may know, towards the conclusion of Avatar, there is a sense of finality when you get two extremely enormous arrows in your chest. So receiving that call (from Cameron) was a huge bonus and a godsend, and I am now back in a big manner."

Cameron has been working on sequels to his blockbuster picture for nearly a decade. The studio has announced four sequels to Avatar, two of which have already begun filming while the other two are awaiting the success of the first. Because of the sequences that needed to be filmed for both sequels, the filmmaker shot them back to back. Cameron acknowledged to Variety around a year ago why he filmed the movie in this manner.

"We combined the timetables for 2 and 3 depending on the sorts of scenes and settings," Cameron told the trade. "Let's simply approach it as a six-hour miniseries and travel to Frankfurt just once, I said. We'll film all of the sequences from 2 and 3 simultaneously. That was the general theme. Actor availability was also a concern. We performed all of the sequences for 2 and 3 together — plus a little bit of 4 — that required a particular actor. Because I had to shoot the kids out again. On page 25 of movie 4, they are permitted to age six years in the midst of the plot. So I needed everything before that, and anything after that would be done later."

Several returning actors have been confirmed for the sequel, including Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, CCH Pounder, Matt Gerald, and Sigourney Weaver. The sequels' cast will feature various newcomers as well as returning members, including Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Oona Chaplin, David Thewlis, Vin Diesel, and CJ Jones. The sequels' plots are presently unknown.