One of the biggest mysteries about Avatar 2, aka Avatar: The Way of Water, hasn't been just when it'll actually arrive, but how in the hell Colonel Miles Quaritch will return.
It was announced way back in October 2013(!) that Stephen Lang would be returning, despite Quaritch's brutal death in the first movie when he was on the receiving end of a couple of massive arrows.
James Cameron then confirmed in August 2017 that Lang would still be playing Quaritch across all four planned sequels. "There's not a new villain every time, which is interesting. Same guy. Same motherf**ker through all four movies," he teased.
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But the exact circumstances of Quaritch's return have been kept a secret – until maybe now as a fan has spotted an interesting detail in the recently-released Avatar 2 teaser.
While the teaser is largely just a collection of the breathtaking visuals that await us on our return to Pandora, fans have spotted that one Na'vi character bears a striking resemblance to Quaritch, and if that's true, Jake Sully could be in trouble.
There's been no official confirmation that this character is Quaritch resurrected in a new Na'vi form. However, not only does the haircut remind us of him, but there's also the same tattoo on the left upper arm that we saw on Quaritch in the first movie.
Of course, it could just be another military character, but the similarities are hard to ignore and it does make sense.
Perhaps after his fatal injury in the first movie, Quaritch's body might have been dead, but the RDA could have had enough time to upload his mind into a Na'vi body. Jake used the Tree of Souls to permanently transfer his mind into his Na'vi avatar, so we know it can be done.
Equally, there's a chance that the RDA kept the DNA of their most important figures and they used this to create the new Quaritch. There's also been a long-running theory that the RDA might even have been able to clone Quaritch, but then you imagine they'd have brought him back as is.
Unless Quaritch, with his military mind, realised he couldn't take on the Na'vi and defeat them without becoming them. Quaritch with the strength of a Na'vi is a terrifying prospect for Jake to face.
It's also just over a minute's worth of footage that we've seen of Avatar 2 so far, which means we might see Quaritch as a human too elsewhere in the movie.
At least we know that the long-delayed sequel is actually coming out this December, so we don't have too long to wait until we find out for sure just how Quaritch has come back to haunt Jake and his family.
Avatar: The Way of Water is released in cinemas on December 16, while Avatar is available to watch on Disney+.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
