Avatar: Here's How [Spoiler] Survived to Return in Way of Water

Warning: the following article contains spoilers for Avatar: The Way of Water

If you though that Avatar: The Way of Water is way too similar to the original movie, wait until you learn that the big bad guy from the first film is officially set to return.

Yes, Colonel Miles Quaritch, who mercilessly ripped through the entire Pandora more than ten years ago, will be back to terrorize the main characters once again, even though not in his human form. This was confirmed by Stephen Lang, the actor behind Quaritch, in an interview with Empire.

With many fans questioning how did he manage to return (we clearly saw Quaritch dying in the end of the first movie), the actor was quick to clear things up.

"He's a genetically-engineered autonomous avatar. He has been downloaded with the mind, the emotions, and even more interestingly, possibly the spirit of Quaritch," Lang told Empire.

However, this is where things are getting interesting. According to the actor, the avatar version of Quaritch does not have recollection of some things from his "past life" — for instance, he doesn't actually remember his death. Lang said that his character "comes with a full memory bank up until the time he actually undergoes the DNA transfer."

To those who fear that Quaritch's return might just fully turn The Way of Water into a copy of the first movie: maybe it's too soon to worry. According to Lang, Quaritch was more of a "function" in the first movie, tasked with bringing conflict to Pandora. The sequel, however, is set to reveal something much more interesting about the colonel.

"We're seeing parts of him that we have not seen hitherto. That only makes sense because we don't want to be massaging the same territory over and over again. We need to go to new places, and indeed he does," Lang said.

Fans, however, do not want to calm down that easily. Not really convinced by the "somehow, Palpatine returned" scheme, people believe that milking the same villain and the same storyline will doom The Way of Water to failure. For some fans, Quaritch's comeback is already enough to completely ignore the existence of the sequel.

Meanwhile, stakes are really high for James Cameron 's upcoming sequel. If it doesn't make at least $2 billion to break even, it's likely that the future of the entire ambitious franchise will be threatened.

Avatar: The Way of Water premieres in theaters on December 16.