Avatar: The Entity of Water , the sequel to the original Avatar film , took fans back to the world of Pandora more than ten years after the release of the first film. To the delight of fans, several of the main stars were allowed to reprise their roles in the series despite their characters being killed off in the first film. Stephen Lang’s character Quaritch was revived as a Na’vi avatar, while Sigourney Weaver portrayed a new character named Kiri. However, one cast member of the first Avatar film declined to return for the sequel.
Michelle Rodriguez played the role of Trudy, a pilot who joined Jake Sully and the Na’vi in the original Avatar . Trudy ultimately sacrificed her life to help Na’vi at the end of the film. James Cameron, the franchise director, proposed the idea of reviving the Rodriguez character in the sequel.
When I saw Jim [Cameron] recently, he said to me, ‘I was thinking, what if Michelle came back? A lot of the characters came back [in Water Essence ], so I thought…’ And I was like, ‘You can’t do that – I died a martyr. Jim, I came back in Resident Evil and I shouldn’t, I came back in Machete and I shouldn’t. I came back as Letty, and I shouldn’t have. We can’t do it a fourth time, that would be overkill!’ I don’t get it, it’s so weird. I don’t think they know what to do with a girl without a boyfriend. ‘There is no boyfriend. Should we let her live or kill her?
– revealed Rodriguez in an interview with Vanity Fair .
A still from the movie “Avatar”. James Cameron
Resurrecting Trudy’s character in the Avatar series would not only dilute the emotional impact of her original sacrifice in the first film, it would also mark another return from the dead for Michelle Rodriguez’s character. Rodriguez has “resurrected” in other series, including Resident Evil , Machete and Fast & Furious.
