No one is truly dead in these big tentpole films. It’s been like that since the beginning of time, and it looks like that trend will at least continue with director James Cameron’s upcoming sequels to his hit 2009 film Avatar. If you’ll recall, the main baddie in that particular flick was Colonel Quartich, played by Stephen Lang, and this guy met his untimely fate when he was shot with a pair of arrows to the chest (if you can call it untimely).

It’s already been revealed that Lang would be returning in the next film, but it sounds like Cameron has plans to bring him back for an extended stay for the Avatar sequels. And, from the sound of it, he won’t be the only one doing so. Speaking with Empire, Cameron discussed that while these films will be venturing off into new and unexpected territory, it will have a lot of the same gang along for the ride.

“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 motherf**ker 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.”

We can’t help but wonder how Quartich survived the arrows to the chest, your guess is as good as ours. Empire themselves speculate that his body could have been smuggled off and turned into a cyborg of sorts, or he could have been transferred into a Na’vi body, which would be an interesting take.

The other noteworthy aspect here is that Cameron is very much trying to tell one, long narrative, though Lang himself wouldn’t necessarily compare it to Lord of the Rings just yet.

“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 fulfilment. This is a greater narrative broken up into four complete stories.”

Of course, the big question we all still have here is whether or not audiences will actually care enough to go out to the theaters for the sequels. They’re taking quite the risk by shooting all these films back-to-back-to-back-to-back, and it’d be a real damper if the first sequel only made $300 million.

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SOURCE: Empire