Why Michelle Rodriquez rejected the Avatar sequel
Despite starring in the first Avatar film, Michelle Rodriguez subsequently refused to star in the follow-up, Avatar: The Way of Water. She has now explained her absence from the franchise moving forward.
Rodriguez explained: “‘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.’”
She continued: “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!”
Nevertheless, director James Cameron tried to convince the action star to return to the billion dollar franchise to reprise her role as the Na’vi sympathising combat pilot.
While Rodriguez wanted to give her character a virtuous ending, she also told Vanity Fair that her return would mean perpetuating a trope that she no longer wanted to be part of for the sake of her career and the Avatar series.
Rodriguez’s next is starring in Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves.
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