Who could forget the ending of Avatar, where Jake Sully in his Na’vi and Neytiri kill the evil Colonel Quaritch, played by Stephen Lang? Um, maybe James Cameron could? Because apparently Quaritch, dead as he is, will be the villain in all the Avatar sequels. (There are four and counting at the moment.)

Fine, fine, obviously Cameron remembers, and obviously there will be an explanation for all of this. We don’t know that part yet. But we do know that not only is Lang’s character appearing in the new Avatars, he will continue to be the big menace torturing Jake and Neytiri from beyond the grave. Here’s what Cameron told Empire:

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---er 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.

It is a little surprising that Cameron didn’t bring in a new villain for the sequels. Why kill Lang off if he wanted to use him again? Or maybe that was his plan all along, and what happens to Lang after he dies is very much part of the story. Remember: You dismiss or pre-criticize James Cameron’s movies at your own peril. He has a way of proving skeptics wrong time and again.

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