Michelle Rodriguez on why she won’t let James Cameron reprise her role in ‘Avatar’ sequel
Michelle Rodriguez has downplayed the chances of reprising her tole in the upcoming Avatar film, claiming that it would be “so weird” following her character’s death.
Avatar: The Way Of The Water – the sequel to 2009’s first of the franchise series – was released last year and saw the return of Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) after his character was murdered in the first film.
However, Rodriguez revealed that filmmaker James Cameron suggested that the franchise should also make a return for her character, despite her death in the same movie.
“When I saw Jim recently he was like, ‘I was thinking, What if Michelle came back? A lot of the other characters came back [in The Way of Water]’,” she told Vanity Fair.
The actress immediately turned down his request, she revealed. “I was like, ‘You can’t do that – I died as a martyr,” she explained. “Jim, I came back in Resident Evil, I wasn’t supposed to. I came back in Machete, I wasn’t supposed to. I came back with Letty, I wasn’t supposed to. We can’t do a fourth, that would be overkill!'”
She added: “I don’t understand, it’s so weird. I guess they don’t know what to do with the girl who doesn’t have a boyfriend. ‘She doesn’t have a boyfriend. Should we keep her alive, or kill her?'”
Avatar The Way of Water became a box office success – earning $1billion at the box office in its first two weeks of release before overtaking Cameron’s blockbuster 1997 film Titanic to be crowned the third-highest-grossing movie ever.
In a four-star review of the movie, NME wrote that it’s “a ground-breaking, visually stunning film.”
Back in 2016, it was announced that four Avatar sequels would follow the original – with the titles later revealed as Avatar: The Way of Water, Avatar: The Seed Bearer, Avatar: The Tulkun Rider and Avatar: The Quest for Eywa.
Avatar producer Jon Landau recently confirmed that Vin Diesel will not appear in a future instalment of the franchise, despite the actor previously suggesting otherwise.
In 2021, Rodriguez requested a rewrite for the original Fast and Furious script, claiming it was sexist.
Rodriguez’ co-star Jordana Brewster told Entertainment Weekly that the actress said: ”’I’m not going to be a slut in front of millions of people, so you’re going to lose me if you don’t change this’.”
Meanwhile, Rodriguez also stars in the new Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves – which is out now.
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Akanke Jackson
NME
