‘Avatar 2’ Cast, Updates: Stephen Lang Reprising Villain Colonel Miles Quaritch for Sequel; Filming Begins Early 2017

‘Avatar 2’ actor Stephen Lang is set to reprise his role as the antagonistic Colonel Miles Quaritch together with Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington. Lang revealed that filming will commence early in 2017.

According to Screen Rant, Lang is set to reprise his role as the villainous Colonel Miles Quaritch for James Cameron’s follow-up to the highly successful epic science-fiction film ‘Avatar’ released on December 2009.

Lang was first introduced to the cinematic series as the ruthless leader of the Avatar Program’s mining operations security division. He was fiercely devoted to his military code having served the military entire life.  He was highly skilled in close range as well as armed combat and was a dangerous opponent out on the battle field.

Miles was the film’s main antagonist, who had apparent disregard for the inhabitants of Pandora. He ordered the destruction of the Na’vi tribe’s Omaticaya Hometree and led troops to attempt the demolition of the Tree of Souls. He was last seen apparently killed by Neytiri after she fired two arrows on his chest using her father’s bow.

It is unclear whether Miles will be resurrected from the dead or if he will appear in flashbacks in subsequent follow-ups.

According to Movie Web, Lang revealed that filming for ‘Avatar 2’ is set to begin early in 2017 in order to keep its scheduled release for 2008. He said, "Yeah, the reading of things. We're getting there. We're in good shape. We'll be starting certainly early in the new year. But you know, the thing is, as you can imagine with a film like Avatar, it's not like the work hasn't been going on. The design, the production design, the various worlds, and creatures and environments, that's all being worked on."

Lang continued, "That's what [James Cameron]'s done, he creates problems in which he then needs to invent a technology and a new way to do it, and I believe that's part of the quite perverse joy for him in this is creating these seemingly insurmountable problems, and then bringing aboard people who can be helpful and say, "This is what we've got to do." So it's a massive effort, but I have every expectation because I'm pretty intimately aware of what's going. It's going to be an absolute joy to behold."

Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington, who play lead protagonists Neytiri and Jake Sully respectively, will also be reprising their roles for the sequel. It was also reported that Sigourney Weaver, who played exobiologist Dr. Grace Augustine in the first film, will be returning for a second time.

‘Avatar 2’ is an upcoming action-adventure and science-fiction film scheduled to be released sometime in 2018. It is directed, co-written and co-produced by James Cameron and is intended as his sequel to 2009’s film of the same name.

Its predecessor garnered multiple accolades and broke several box office records. The first film earned $2.787 billion worldwide on a production budget of $425 million.