Avatar: Fire and Ash director James Cameron says villain Quaritch is "undergoing an identity crisis" in the film, and teases a possible redemption: "Jake would rather have this guy on his side"

Stephen Lang as Quaritch in Avatar: The Way of Water
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Steven Lang's Colonel Miles Quaritch is one of the most complicated characters of James Cameron's Avatar franchise, with shifting loyalties that are only exacerbated by his fate in Avatar: The Way of Water, in which Quaritch changed from a normal human into a "recombinant" Na'vi in a totally new body. According to Cameron himself, Quaritch's conflicted nature will be an important part of the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash.

"Quaritch is undergoing an identity crisis. His interest in the biological son of his biological precursor form is all about trying to define, 'Am I a completely new person? Am I bound by the rules and the behaviors of the person whose memories and personality I was imprinted with?' It's a true existential dilemma for him in the philosophical sense," Cameron tells Empire.

"He could connect, he could plug in — Jake wants him to," says Cameron. "I don't want to tell you where it goes, but we're gonna see all this play out, because Jake would rather have this guy on side," the filmmaker continues. "It's very uninteresting to just have two guys trying to kill each other for three movies, so it gets much snakier. Quaritch's soul is very much in play in movie three."

George Marston

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.