Michelle Rodriguez has refused to let James Cameron even entertain the idea of bringing her back for the Avatar series, citing too many resurrections of her past characters in other film franchises.
The Fast and Furious actress was apparently unmoved by the record-breaking box office hauls of the 2009 film in which she played the sympathetic, pro-Na’vi combat pilot Trudy Chacón, and its similarly successful 2022 sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water. So, she recalled to Vanity Fair, when she ran into Cameron and he told her “‘I was thinking, “What if Michelle came back? A lot of the other characters came back [in The Way of Water].”‘ I was like, ‘You can’t do that — I died as a martyr.’”
Aside from not wanting to tarnish the noble ending given to her character, Rodriguez’s insistence was both a career and creative-based decision. She says that she told Cameron, “‘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 [in 2013’s Fast & Furious 6], I wasn’t supposed to. We can’t do a fourth, that would be overkill!’”
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At least within the Avatar universe, Michelle Rodriguez’s return wouldn’t seem very unusual, as the original film’s main antagonist, played by Stephen Lang, also appeared in the sequel despite his demise in the first installment. Sigourney Weaver also starred in both films — playing the human scientist Dr. Grace Augustine in the first film, and then playing Grace’s Na’vi daughter Kiri in The Way of Water.
Rodriguez is currently promoting the supernaturally solid Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, opposite Chris Pine. Meanwhile, a nine-hour cut of Avatar 3 is being prepared as a limited series for Disney+.
