I love a good action movie. Who doesn’t? I feel like a truly good action movie is hard to come by these days. Sure, there are a million okay action flicks, but to find something truly memorable like a Commando or a Die Hard is pretty difficult in 2026.

Yes, the John Wick movies have been consistently good, but aren’t there any OTHER great action movies over the past few years or so? And, the answer is yes. There actually are, and those movies would be 2022’s Sisu and its 2025 sequel, Sisu: Road to Revenge. They come from Finland, and are probably the most exhilarating and pulse-pounding action movies I’ve seen in the past decade or so.

You can watch the second movie, Sisu: Road to Revenge, right now with your Netflix subscription. Here’s why you should.

Sure, You Could Watch The First Movie, But You Don't Have To To Enjoy This One

Do you know how old I was when I watched Terminator 2: Judgment Day? Eight. I was 8-years-old when I watched the second Terminator. I only bring this up because at that point, I hadn’t seen the first movie yet. I started off with the sequel, and that was just fine at the time (However, now that I have seen The Terminator, I actually think it’s superior in a lot of ways to T2). This is important, though, because the same can’t be said for every sequel.

For instance, just try to watch The Matrix Reloaded without seeing The Matrix first. You’re going to be lost out of your mind. That’s the cool thing about Sisu: Road to Revenge. Because sure, you COULD watch the first movie, which is currently available with an Amazon Prime subscription, but you honestly don’t have to. Everything is spelled out quite clearly in the sequel.

WARNING: FROM HERE ON OUT, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS

We learn that our protagonist, Aatami (Jorma Tommila) is a former Finnish Army Commando, and that his entire family was murdered, which sets him off on the road to being a killing machine. In the first movie, his character is way more mysterious, and we learn bits and pieces about his past through what other characters have to say about him. But in this movie, we get scenes that show just why he’s so committed to killing his enemies.

In fact, in the sequel, we actually see who murdered his family, but I’ll get to him in a bit. First, I want to talk about just why this movie is worthy of your time if you’re a fan of action movies.

The Action Is Almost Nonstop After The First Fifteen Minutes

Going back to Terminator 2, it has one of my favorite opening scenes ever. We see the war of the robots, and why it’s imperative that John Connor has to be saved. In every way, it’s the perfect way to start a movie.

Well, Sisu: Road to Revenge actually takes a slower approach. Instead of jumping right to the action, we’re instead introduced to our protagonist, and we see all that he’s lost. It’s slow-paced and somber, and for the first 15 minutes, you might be wondering if this is an action movie at all. But, once it hits that 15-minute mark, oh, baby. The action NEVER lets up.

The film, like its predecessor, is told in chapters, and once we get to the action, it’s kind of hard to keep up. Our hero dispatches enemies in the most clever ways imaginable, and the film likes to shift set pieces frequently. For example, in one moment, our hero is stabbing and shooting people to death, and in the next, he’s racing in a truck against motorcyclists with bulletproof helmets.

A few minutes later, and he’s being chased by airplanes that are trying to blow him up, and the action simply does. Not. Stop! My favorite scene involves Aatami being on a train full of sleeping soldiers, and the ways he tries to get around them, with one moment in particular being especially cringe-inducing (but in the best sort of way!).

I’ll tell you, there are action movies, and then there are ACTION MOVIES, and Sisu: Road to Revenge is certainly the latter. It’s all also upheld by a stellar antagonist, who I’ll get into next.

The Antagonist Is A True Match For Our Protagonist

I feel like every action movie worth its fake blood needs a final boss of some sort. Yes, the first movie had one…kind of…but it didn't really feel earned to me. The villain spent most of the movie running AWAY from our hero, and when they did eventually fight, it didn’t really seem like he would be able to beat up the protagonist the way that he does.

However, the sequel doesn't have this problem. From the very beginning, we're introduced to our antagonist (chained up in the rain, no less). He’s played by Stephen Lang, who is famous for playing a villain in the Avatar movies, and he’s a stellar villain here, too, as Yeagor Draganov, a Soviet Red Army officer who killed Aatami's family. Draganov is the perfect bad guy because he has no respect for human life (even his subordinates), and he really wants to confront Aatami because he sees a challenge in him that he's never faced before, and he wants to.

Draganov relishes the fact that he turned Aatami into a legendary killer, and he wants to be the one who destroys him as well. He gloats about killing his family, but he's also impressed by just how much Aatami deserves his reputation, making them feel like equals in a sense.

Stephen Lang is an excellent addition to this series, and it's a shame that he'll never be back, given the way that he's taken out, which I'll get into next.

This Also Reaches John Wick Levels Of Ridiculousness

There's a reason why everybody brings up John Wick when it comes to white-knuckle action, and it's because the fight scenes and gun battles are just so good in those movies. And, I think a major part of this is just how ridiculous the action can get in those films sometimes, like John Wick killing somebody with a book, or falling off a rooftop…and surviving.

Well, the Sisu series is also quite impressive when it comes to its creative kills, like in the first movie, where Aatami could stay underwater for extended periods of time by stabbing somebody in the neck, and then breathing underwater through the hole he just made, or throwing landmines at people's faces.

Sisu: Road to Revenge turns the dial up to 11 with even crazier action. For example, I mentioned the train scene earlier. Aatami is stabbing people through their beds, firing bullets that sever limbs, and the creme de la creme is when he actually uses a missile to rocket off toward another train, only to fight the antagonist to the bitter end before blowing him up with said missile. Satisfying stuff.

In that way, Sisu: Road to Revenge is truly ridiculous, and its action should be applauded. They don't make action movies like this anymore, which is why you should definitely check it out on Netflix if you’re a fan of the genre. You won’t be disappointed.

When we talk about the Avatar movies, the cutting-edge and award-winning visual effects understandably are the hero of the story the most often. But, when CinemaBlend had a chance to visit James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment in Manhattan Beach, California, this week, the actress behind Fire And Ash fan-favorite Varang pointed out one behind-the-scenes detail that’s quite jaw-dropping.

Oona Chaplin embodied the leader of the Mangkwan (aka the Ash People) for the third Avatar film through performance capture. When I asked the actor about an element of making these movies that still blows her away, she pointed out this fact about one aspect of the production you may have missed. In her words:

Of course, writer/director James Cameron and the other filmmakers across all facets of the production are tasked with creating the believable world of Pandora for us to escape into. But the fact that the movie’s composer also took the time to create brand new instruments for a sequence that ultimately lasts less than a minute of the 3-hour-and-17-minute flick is pretty wild when you think about it. She spoke about it in more detail:

The Avatar movies really are amazing, aren’t they? After the latest installment of the franchise ruled the holiday season box office, Fire and Ash has just arrived on digital platforms. If you’re like me and are amazed by the behind-the-scenes of these movies with stories such as this one, the new release also involves over three hours of never-before-seen bonus features to add more awe to how it was made.

While Oona Chaplin’s character is thought of as the new bad guy in Fire and Ash, she has spoken before about how Varang is thought of as the “hero of her people” following the Ash People going through a natural disaster that made them go “Well, fuck Ewya”.

James Cameron updated fans that Avatar 4 isn’t yet official, but he has spoken out about his desire to make Varang “a little more [prominent]” should it happen. With that in mind, perhaps those instruments, along with more facets of Ash People culture, will be explored further? Oona Chaplin has also teased “so many cool possibilities moving forward” for her character.

As the movie is now available to watch at home, you can check out our Avatar: Fire and Ash review and check out what blockbusters are on the way on the 2026 movie calendar here on CinemaBlend.

Avatar: Fire and Ash has been among the 2025 movies global audiences have been anticipating the most since the year started, and finally, it’s here. And as it goes with every great epic, we have to go into the Avatar movies knowing that not every character will survive. Case in point, in Fire and Ash, there’s definitely one big death to talk about. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Major Death Scene In Avatar: Fire And Ash

At the end of Avatar: Fire and Ash, we see Stephen Lang’s Quaritch fall to his death during a scene between him and the Sullys. It’s an interesting moment, because Quaritch initiates the fall himself after Jake had just saved him from falling. We don’t get to see where he lands, leaving the possibility of Quaritch still being alive available. With the open-ended scene in mind, I had to ask Lang about his reading of the scene, of course.

What Stephen Lang Told Us About Quaritch's Death

During CinemaBlend’s interview with the actor, he gave us some interesting insight into the death scene. In his words:

The scene certainly felt like a “fuck it” moment for the character, so this is a great description from the actor behind it.

Quaritch certainly had an interesting journey in Fire and Ash that would warrant some confusion from his end about his place in Pandora. Technically, he dies at the end of 2009’s Avatar before he is brought back to life in Na’vi form for Way of Water to capture Jake Sully.

But in Fire and Ash, he starts to assimilate further with the Na’vi race, from forming an interesting romance with Verang to forming feelings for his son, Spider, who is human, but calls Pandora his home. I wonder if killing Jake’s son started weighing on him, and he got tired of trying to kill Jake.

For the time being, Walt Disney Studios has dated more Avatar movies to come out in 2029 and 2031, but James Cameron told us that the box office performance will determine whether he makes them. So, at the moment, we don't know if we'll ever get to learn the true fate of this character.

With Fire And Ash’s debut weekend upon us, the movie has positive to mixed reactions from critics (with our Avatar: Fire And Ash review giving it a 3.5 out of 5), and big projections for its worldwide box office performance with a projected launch of $340 million to $365 million start, per Variety. We do have to wonder if it’s the end of Quaritch, or if he’ll come back somehow, but I’m privy to think it’s the end of his story.

James Cameron is used to pressure. He’s felt it 12,500 feet below the ocean’s surface, trapped in a submersible near the wreck of the Titanic. He’s felt it pioneering new filmmaking technology, betting entire studios on ideas that sounded unreasonable at the time. And once again, he’s feeling it as the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash heads toward its 2025 movie schedule release; Disney pressed for him to cut the film's runtime.

The latest tension centers on runtime and character focus. As Cameron explains, Disney had familiar concerns about the film's length and whether audiences really needed so much time with Colonel Miles Quaritch, the franchise’s long-running antagonist. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Academy Award–winning filmmaker framed the pushback as part of a decades-old studio mindset, one he believes no longer reflects how audiences actually engage with movies. He explains:

According to the Terminator franchise creator, Fire and Ash originally ran for almost four hours before being cut to three hours and 15 minutes. Early screenings received a very positive response, with people eager to see it again, although there were still some common complaints, many of which concerned the movie's length. He says he reads all the feedback and takes what matters into account, but he’s pretty strict about keeping the story's depth and the characters intact.

Quaritch, played again by Stephen Lang, isn't just your typical bad guy. He actually serves as an essential thread in the Avatar story, showcasing the darker sides of humanity and our unresolved issues. For Cameron, cutting these parts to make the film shorter would really diminish its emotional and philosophical impact.

The stakes for Fire and Ash are unusually high, even by Avatar standards. Cameron has acknowledged that the film’s performance will determine whether the planned fourth and fifth installments move forward as envisioned. While parts of those sequels have already been shot, their future hinges on whether audiences still show up for a three-hour-plus theatrical experience in a shifting moviegoing landscape.

That uncertainty has also prompted Cameron to reflect on his own future. After spending more than a decade immersed in Pandora, the director says he’s increasingly eager to explore other projects, including a new Terminator script, documentaries, and stories that step outside the Avatar universe. He’s been candid about feeling at a crossroads: whether he wants Fire and Ash to be such a massive success that it locks him back into years of sequels, or just successful enough to give him the freedom to pivot.

Still, the visionary moviemaker isn’t hedging creatively. He remains adamant that spectacle without emotional investment doesn’t last, and that audience engagement matters more than shaving minutes to squeeze in an extra showing. For a filmmaker who built his career on taking risks others warned him against, that philosophy hasn’t changed. If Avatar: Fire and Ash is going to work, James Cameron believes it has to work on its own terms — length, Quaritch, and all.

Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third chapter in the long-running Pandora saga, hits theaters on December 19, 2025. Be sure to check your local listings for showtimes.

There are few things that can kill a franchise faster than repetition. Filmmakers can create a cinematic world full of vibrancy and eclectic characters, but audiences are going to get bored if the same basic plots and relationships get reused and/or don’t evolve. Even the box office powerhouse that is the Avatar series wouldn’t be immune to this, which is why director James Cameron is changing things up with the dynamic between Jake Sully and Col. Miles Quaritch in the upcoming Avatar: Fire And Ash.

Jake and Quaritch have been combative forces ever since the former joined the fight to stop humans from destroying Pandora in the original Avatar, and they had a hell of a tussle in the third act of Avatar: The Way Of Water, but we can expect something different from the two characters in the second sequel – which is now just a few weeks away from arriving in theaters. Discussing the conflict recently with Empire , Cameron explained,

Per the filmmaker, one major thing that is impacting the development of Miles Quaritch (played by Stephen Lang) is the existence of Miles "Spider" Socorro (Jack Champion) – the colonel’s 16-year-old son who lives as part of the Sully family. The hardened military leader is going to be grappling with questions of his existence and the nature of both who he is and was: his former human form biologically produced a child, but he is now a Recombinant and living in a Na’vi body.

As for his relationship with Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), the franchise hero is not interested in pursuing his violent conflict with Quaritch further – per Cameron – and he wants his nemesis to eventually become his ally and connect deeper with the nature of Pandora. Added the filmmaker,

James Cameron is certainly no stranger to “villain becomes the hero” plotting, as Arnold Schwarzenegger famously went from being an unstoppable killing machine in Terminator to being the world’s best body guard for humanity’s savior in T2: Judgement Day. Even if we don’t see Quaritch start to change sides in Avatar: Fire And Ash, there are still at least two more stories planned in the future – with Avatar 4 dated for December 2029 and Avatar 5 scheduled for December 2031.

Also featuring the talents of Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Kate Winslet in addition to the aforementioned Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang and Jack Champion, Avatar: Fire And Ash is set to be the biggest movie released at the end of 2025, and it will be arriving in theaters everywhere on December 19 (and it will be sporting an epic 195 minute runtime). Be sure to keep heading back here to CinemaBlend between now and then, as we’ll have plenty more coverage of the blockbuster on the way in the run up to the release.

After waiting a decade for the second entry in the Avatar franchise, fans won’t need to wait nearly as long for Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film in the series. What we know about Avatar 3 so far is focused on the broad strokes, but now we’re getting a small look at how the story will continue for a couple of key characters.

Avatar: The Way of Water introduced us to Spider, the son of Stephen Lang’s Quaritch, who had been raised on Pandora by the Sully family. As a boy caught between two worlds, Spider may not be quite sure where his own loyalties lie, as Stephen Lang tells Empire that Quaritch and his son will be pushed together in the next film, and the result may not be good news for our heroes. Lang said…

The story in Empire is accompanied by an image that shows Quaritch and Spider together, in a similar cell to the one Spider ends up in after he’s captured by Quaritch’s men in The Way of Water. Quaritch is clearly trying to talk to the boy, but Spider has his back to Quaritch, not wanting to listen.

At the end of Avatar: The Way of Water, Spider remained with the Sully family, but only after saving Quaritch from drowning and nearly being killed by Neytiri. It seems clear that all families are going to be somewhat splintered following the events of the last film.

Based on what Lang says, it sounds like Spider may ultimately start listening to what Quaritch has to say. This may be because Quaritch, despite being an Avatar clone of Spider’s father, may start to actually investigate some sort of parental role. It seems Quaritch may begin to have feelings for Spider, though that may not entirely be a good thing. Lang continued…

It will be interesting to see how the relationship between Quaritch and Spider impacts the rest of the story, which we know will be focused on Jake Sully and his family crossing paths with a new tribe of Na’vi, who live in a volcanically active area of Pandora. All implications are that this tribe will be significantly less friendly than the previous Na’vi we have met.

With the question of “whether people still care about Avatar” clearly answered in the affirmative, we can already expect that Avatar: Fire and Ash will be one of the most successful movies of the year. But fans are certainly going to be looking forward to actually seeing it when it hits theaters in December.

There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the 2025 movie schedule, but one of them has to be the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash. The third film in the Avatar franchise will hit theaters in December. Its box office success seems all but certain, given that the first two films are among the highest-grossing movies ever made, and James Cameron has indicated that he thinks Avatar 3 is the best one yet.

The filming of Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 must have been a massive undertaking. The two films, along with the first portion of Avatar 4, were all shot as a single gigantic production. Speaking with Collider, star Stephen Lang explained how much work he did on the upcoming Avatar movies, and said he believes he is finally done, though he doesn’t sound entirely convinced:

It certainly sounds like Stephen Lang got called back a lot by James Cameron during the production of the Avatar sequels. Reshoots are pretty standard practice for any major studio production, especially movies with a significant amount of CGI, and Avatar is almost all CGI.

One can imagine that filming two entire movies, plus doing whatever reshoot work was needed for both of them, probably meant a lot of trips to New Zealand over the last couple of years. It sounds like Lang thought he was done more than once, so he can never be entirely sure he’s actually finished.

One assumes that when he says he thinks “we’re done,” he’s referring only to the upcoming Avatar sequel and not the two additional movies that are set to go into production after Avatar: Fire and Ash arrives in theaters. As far as we know, Lang will be a part of those films as well. At this point, nothing short of a complete box office disaster is likely to prevent those from being made.

Of course, when that happens, it will mean going back to a massive production once again. As with Avatar 2 and 3, Avatar 4 and 5 are planned to shoot simultaneously. Avatar 5 currently has a release date of 2031. That’s a lot of time for a lot of callbacks, Stephen Lang, best be ready.

Warning: SPOILERS for Avatar: The Way of Water’s ending are in play. If you haven’t made your return trip to Pandora just yet, consider yourself warned.

Over a decade of waiting has paid off, as Avatar: The Way of Water joined the flow of new movie releases in theaters this past weekend. As James Cameron’s sci-fi follow-up begins its journey into the world, the future of the Avatar franchise has some new questions in the wake of The Way of Water’s ending. With one of those questions pertaining to a decision made by Jack Champion’s character Spider, the story in Cameron’s overarching epic has an interesting dynamic in play. 

Actor Stephen Lang, who played the nefarious Col. Miles Quaritch and his recent resurrected self, added some interesting context to the decision we’re about to discuss from Avatar 2’s ending. As such, we’re going to give you one more warning before discussion what Lang told CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell during 20th Century Studios’ press day for Avatar: The Way of Water. 

Spider’s Decision At The End Of Avatar: The Way Of Water

With the final major set-piece of Avatar’s big sequel seeing the Sully family squaring off against Col. Quaritch’s Recombinant Na’vi avatar, it looks like Miles’ ticket has been punched yet again. If it wasn’t for Spider saving him from drowning, the infamous villain would have died, depriving the franchise of its most memorable foe. However, thanks to Quaritch still drawing breath, Stephen Lang has set up the following concept for future sequels to explore:

That’s right, folks: Spider is the original Miles Quaritch’s son. The short short version of that story is as follows: Spider, originally named Miles himself, was born not too long before his biological father died. So you can see where the whole Na’vi resurrection of Col. Quaritch would present some problems for a child who grew up among The People, as children can’t travel in the cryo-sleep journey that is necessary to get to and from Pandora.

What Spider’s Actions Mean For The Avatar Story Moving Forward

So what do Miles “Spider” Socorro’s actions mean for the future of the Avatar series? Well, as Stephen Lang explained above, Spider rescued the Recom version of Quaritch in the name of settling the score. With this new spin on an old foe flat out admitting the two are not blood relations, Spider and Colonel Quaritch don’t have any familial ties to be obligated towards. Which makes sense, as the young man witnessed his pseudo-resurrected father engage in some cruel behavior throughout Avatar: The Way of Water. 

Those of you thinking there might be some sort of family reconciliation in the next chapter, or even in the potential sixth and seventh Avatar films James Cameron is tinkering with, might want to think otherwise. While there’s some wild f-bomb inspiring ideas ahead for Pandora, it doesn’t sound like Miles and Spider building a father/son relationship is going to be one of them.

Should Miles and Spider ever meet for a rematch, there's bound to be some mixed feelings in the air. So maybe they won't be ready to kill each other instantaneously upon their reunion. Anything is possible, as the future of Cameron’s sci-fi epic is still as mysterious as it was after Avatar first premiered in 2009. 

While we may not have the full story on what’s to come, we do know that Avatar: The Way of Water opens a lot of doors for the future of the franchise. You can see why that’s the case in theaters now, whether you’re experiencing it for the first time or making a return trip. While you’re at it, you can take in Avatar again, as that origin story has been added yet again to the library provided with a Disney+ subscription. 

Avatar: The Way of Water has finally arrived – after only 13 years of waiting. For some, it may be crazy to think that it’s been over a decade since the public’s last trip to Pandora. Though there are probably others who felt every bit of that long gestation period. Like the public as a whole, the stars of the franchise themselves had also been looking forward to James Cameron’s science fiction follow-up. However, they’ve all been busy since the first film’s release, as evidenced by their lengthy filmographies. On that note, CinemaBlend put Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and their co-stars to the test by having them guess how many films they’ve done since 2009.

CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell sat down with the cast during the Way of Water press junket. During the chats, he asked whether the stars knew just how many big-screen productions they’d been a part of since the first movie in James Cameron’s planned saga. When the question was posed to Sigourney Weaver, who plays Kiri, she admitted that she didn’t, before learning that she’d done 24 movies in that time span. She then provided an interesting response: 

Sigourney Weaver clearly knew filming was going to be challenging, and that turned out to be true. Like her co-stars, Weaver had to train for the water-related work that was necessary for production and ultimately pulled it off tremendously. The same is also true for Miles Quaritch actor Stephen Lang, who’s done 38 films since the first installment in the franchise. The veteran actor was asked whether it feels like he’s done that much work since then and dropped an honest answer: 

Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington, who portray Neytiri and Jake Sully, have also been busy, with the former tallying 22 and the latter 25. Saldaña quipped that she thought it was only five, while Worthington mused that 21 of his “never came out.” Saldaña has, of course, starred in a number of blockbusters, and two of the movies released in that time – Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame – are among the all-time highest-grossing films alongside Avatar. The actress went on to discuss her good fortune and what it means to be able to grow within the entertainment industry: 

These stars have definitely had professional journeys that few actors get to embark upon, and it’s great to see that they’re fully conscious of that fact. Of course, it’s not over yet, as there are three additional Avatar movies planned, with each in a different stage of production. I’m eager to see how many flicks Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and their co-stars can get in the can between the releases of those installments. 

Avatar: The Way of Water is playing in theaters now, while the first movie can be streamed using a Disney+ subscription. As the year winds down, also be sure that you check out our schedule of 2023 new movie releases to learn about what’s arriving next year.

The stars of James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” including Zoe Saldaña (Neytiri), Sam Worthington (Jake), Kate Winslet (Ronal), Sigourney Weaver (Kiri) and Stephen Lang (Quaritch) discuss the “Avatar” sequel in this interview with CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell. Zoe and Sam have hilarious reactions to finding out how many movies they've been in since 2009's "Avatar," Kate talks about what makes her and James Cameron get along so well and much more.

Video Chapters

00:00 - Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver & The 'Avatar 2' React To The High Volume Of Movies They've Been In Since 'Avatar'
01:19 - Zoe Saldaña Has Immense Gratitude For 'Avatar' And James Cameron's Filmography
02:27 - Kate Winslet Braces Herself to Watch 'Avatar 2'
02:47 - Kate Winslet: 'Titanic' Was ‘A Terrifying Experience’ For James Cameron
03:35 - Kate Winslet Pinpoints What Makes James Cameron's Screenplays Resonate
04:52 - Zoe Saldaña: 'Neytiri Challenged Me The Most In 'Avatar: The Way Of Water.' She's Fighting Fear'
06:16 - Zoe Saldaña Teases What's Next For Jake And Neytiri
06:53 - Sam Worthington: '[James Cameron] Has a Great Track Record For Sequels'
07:38 - Stephen Lang Describes The Nuances of What Makes A James Cameron Script
08:52 - Sigourney Weaver's Chief Concern About Returning For 'Avatar: The Way Of Water,' And How It Was Resolved
10:52 - Kate Winslet Was Honored to be part of the 'Avatar' Cast
11:23 - How Kate Winslet Felt When 'Avatar' Topped 'Titanic' At The Global Box Office

Since the official release of Avatar: The Way of Water's gorgeous trailer, anticipation has begun to grow for the upcoming Disney movie. Although the film’s plot is still heavily guarded, what we know about the Avatar sequel is that the original film’s big bad, Colonel Miles Quaritch (played terrifyingly by Stephen Lang), is set to return, albeit in the form of an avatar. And the actor has gotten very specific about how his character is revived in the highly anticipated follow-up.

While talking to Empire Magazine, Stephen Lang dropped some very interesting details on how Quaritch is being brought back for the James Cameron-directed film. According to the Don’t Breathe star, the cigar-munching villain will be brought back by the evil RDA cooperation as a genetically-engineered autonomous avatar, known in the movie as a Recom [short for Recombinant]. One big question about this, of course, is whether or not the character will still have his memories when he's revived. Lang revealed the answer:

It'll be interesting to see whether the character learns about his death at some point, but there are other things to consider with the character as well. The 70-year-old actor also said that his Avatar character served a “colorful” plot-driven function in the first movie but, for the sequel, he could explore more depths with his character. The star said about playing Quaritch this time around:

Some fans online were quick to opine that Stephen Lang’s Quaritch was the best part of the first Avatar film. The actor didn’t take too kindly to this back-handed compliment, and he was quick to clap back , reminding viewers that he is returning to the franchise with several other, in his words, “good things.” A number of commentators have shared less-than positive thoughts about the world of Avatar returning to cinemas after a thirteen-year gap. However, if recent box-office tracking for Way of Water is to be believed, those naysayers could soon be proven wrong. The movie is estimated to bring in between $135 and $175 million over three days. Moviegoers are clearly ready to explore the world of Pandora once again and see Lang’s Colonel Quaritch chew some more cigars and scenery. 

You can return to the world of Pandora when Avatar: The Way of Water finally hits theaters on December 16 and, if you're itching to check out the original movie, you can stream it using a Disney+ subscription. You can also check out the other new movies coming to theaters soon.

Avatar: The Way of Water has been in development for over ten years and is finally hitting theaters later this year. It is a sequel to the blockbuster phenomenon Avatar, which made major strides in the world of visual effects and went on to become the highest grossing film of all time. Now it seems like Avatar 2 may be just as much of a spectacular movie going experience as its predecessor. One of the stars of the franchise, Stephen Lang, recently revealed what makes James Cameron’s latest venture so special-- and why it will be worth seeing in theaters. 

In a recent interview with ComicBookNews.com, Lang detailed his experience working on this film a decade after appearing in the original film, and the beautiful film that emerged as a result. Lang says of the sci-fi epic:

Clearly the true beauty of this film will not just be the unbelievable visuals and advancements in the technological capabilities of filmmaking. The down to earth themes and heart that seems to ground even Cameron’s most ambitious projects always shine, and according to Lang, it does in this film as well. Avatar 2 is already emerging as a major highlight of this movie-going season, and it is truly a must-watch. I’m glad to hear the various delays that this film had to overcome were worth it. If the trailers are any indication, Avatar 2 will be a mind-bending experience. Follow up films are already in the works, so Avatar fans have a lot to look forward to. 

While very few plot details about the film have been revealed, we do know that much of the original cast is returning, including Signourney Weaver, who will be playing a very challenging part that differs from her original role in Avatar. The film will be very family centered, with Sam Worthington’s Jake Scully and Zoe Saldaña's Neytiri at the forefront. There has also been a lot of speculation around Lang’s character in the sequel, as his character died in the first film. Whatever it is, I’m sure it will be creative and thematically interesting, just as Weaver’s certainly will be. 

Stephen Lang has been busy since the release of the original Avatar. He has been a major part of the horror franchise Don’t Breathe, and has contributed to other blockbuster projects like 2022’s The Lost City. He also starred alongside Christian Bale in 2017’s Hostiles. In addition, Lang is signed on for all announced future iterations of Avatar, which are currently in production with James Cameron directing. 

Avatar: The Way of Water will be released exclusively in theaters on December 16th. The original 2009 film, Avatar, was temporarily  removed from streaming platforms for a limited theatrical release, but is set to return for Disney+ subscribers to stream ahead of Avatar 2’s premiere. For more information on other films hitting theaters and streaming later this year, make sure to check out CinemaBlend’s 2022 movie release schedule. 

Avatar is the highest grossing movie of all-time. It was an absolute phenomenon of a movie when it came out in 2009, and James Cameron has been working on the sequels ever since then. Now, more than a decade later, we’re supposed to  be getting the first of four new movies later this year, and recent rumors have indicated we could see the Avatar 2 trailer very soon. The only question is, does anybody still care?

It’s become something of a joke over the years that the highest-grossing movie ever is one that a lot of people couldn’t tell you much about today. We all saw it, sure, but over the years Avatar simply hasn't had the excited fan base of something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When was the last time you even saw Avatar?

I’ll be honest, while I saw the original Avatar on the big screen and in 3D (and I very much remember that), I’m not sure I had seen the movie again since then. But with the rumor of an Avatar 2 trailer on the horizon, and having a recent day off, I decided I’d take the time to re-watch Avatar on Disney+. Now that I have, I’m actually much more interested in Avatar 2 than I was before.

Avatar Still Looks Amazing 

The big selling feature of the original Avatar, in addition to the use of 3D (which was novel at the time), was the heavy use of CGI and motion capture to create the world of Pandora and all the alien inhabitants, including the Na’vi people. The movie showed us a world that was unlike anything we’d ever seen at the movies. It was a technological achievement and has held up quite well.

While I didn’t re-watch Avatar on a massive theater screen, I did watch it on reasonably big 4K television, and the movie still looks visually stunning. So often an actor standing in front of green screen makes things look off, but because nearly everything you see on the screen is handled with the same CGI, it looks cohesive. The alien creatures look incredible and the Na’vi feel real. Seeing this again on the big screen would be incredible.

Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri is Awseome 

2009 was the year that a lot of people in the world learned who Zoe Saldaña was. While some might have already known her previously, she starred as Uhura in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie which came just months before the first Avatar. Since then, she’s become a massive star. Maybe if Saldaña has already been one, then it would be easier to remember just how amazing her character Neytiri really is in Avatar.

The first Avatar movie is very much the story of Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully, but considering just how big a name Saldaña is now, I would fully expect that she will take a much larger role in all of the forthcoming sequels. And that’s not a bad thing. Neytiri is, without question, the best character in the first movie. She’s strong and she can fight, but she also has an emotional connection to Pandora, and you can feel her pain as well. Based on what Zoe Saldaña has said herself, the sequel will be an equally emotional experience. 

I Have Questions About The Oceans Of Pandora

While everything we see in Pandora looks pretty amazing in Avatar, there’s a lot that we don’t see which is set to become specifically important in Avatar 2. We don’t spend a great deal of time in the waters of Pandora. In fact, we don't see them at all in the first movie, but that’s why I’m looking forward to seeing them in the sequel, because I now have questions that need answering.

Specifically, where were the Na’vi of the oceans when humanity tried to blow up the planet? When the Omaticaya clan realized they had no choice but to fight the humans, they knew they needed help, and so a call was put out to the other clans of Na’vi people. The call was answered and reinforcements came from a couple of clans we don't spend any time with in the movie otherwise. However, no mention was made of any clans coming from the water or even the coasts of Pandora. Where were they during the decisive battle?

Bringing Back Avatar’s Dead Antagonist Can Only Improve Him 

If there’s one part of Avatar that I didn’t necessarily love upon re-watching, it was Stephen Lang as villain Colonel Miles Quaritch. The character wasn’t bad, but he felt a bit more boilerplate than most of the rest of the film. He’s a marine who sees the Na’vi as the enemy and and only applies military solutions to any conflict. He's an enemy we've seen before, and that character has been defeated.

Lang will be back in Avatar 2, which is interesting because he died pretty definitively at the end of the first movie. He will, in fact, be one of three returning faces in Avatar 2 whose characters died in the previous entry. How exactly that’s going to work still isn’t clear, but we’re not expecting him to simply not be dead. Something about the planet Pandora will likely be the cause of his return. If so, it will probably mean changes to the character going forward, and that’s a good thing. It can only be more interesting.

James Cameron Keeps Raising The Bar 

It is difficult to understate just how incredible James Cameron is. I don’t mean that he is necessarily the greatest filmmaker in the world, though James Cameron’s overall filmography is solid and includes some absolutely remarkable movies no matter how you define that. Still, Cameron is somebody who nearly always does what he sets his mind to do, and he sets his mind to do some pretty incredible things. 

From The Abyss to Terminator 2: Judgment Day to Avatar, James Cameron has reset the limits of what is possible to do in cinema on a technical level more than once. One is reminded of this again when watching Avatar, and then you start to think about what he’s going to do next. I can’t even fathom what all of Avatar 2’s underwater filming will actually look like on screen, but I can’t wait to see it now. 

I will admit that I was previously one of those people who wasn’t necessarily all that excited for Avatar 2. I was curious, to be sure, but I wasn’t waiting for the sequel to be released. Now I’ve found myself actually excited again. I’m looking forward to the first trailer, whenever it comes, and to the movie itself when it arrives on December 16. Whether Avatar 2 succeeds at the level of the first movie or not, I can’t wait to see what the end result of all this time and work is. 

Another horror movie already? Heck yeah! It’s actually been a solid summer for fans of scares and frights, and don’t worry, they’ll keep coming as we transition into spooky season in the coming months. After some other recent releases from the genre, like Old and The Forever Purge, there’s another exciting summer movie in Don’t Breathe 2. It follows Fede Alvarez’s 2016 horror movie that became a surprise favorite at the time. So what do fans think about the sequel?

On the critical front, Don’t Breathe 2 didn’t quite stack up to its predecessor, with many reviews sharing their dislike for the direction it took Stephen Lang’s Norman Nordstrom. CinemaBlend’s own Eric Eisenberg gave it a 1.5 out of 5 rating in his review (yikes!), calling it one of the “most misguided sequels in recent memory.” But not all fans shared their sentiments walking out of last weekend’s theatrical release. Let’s get into their reactions:

Don’t Breathe 2 Is Getting Good Hype From A Lot Of People

First off, a lot of people were really into the sequel on social media, taking to Twitter to share their love for the film. One user called it “non-stop awesome” with this tweet:

The movie follows the blind man from the 2016 original, Stephen Lang’s Norman Nordstrom, eight years following the events of the first movie. He lives in peace with his adopted daughter Phoenix (Madelyn Grace) and Rottweiler in Detroit. However, his past catches up to him when some bad guys find him and kidnap Phoenix. It’s a premise that really worked for a lot of people:

Another fan remarked that Don’t Breathe 2 could pick up new fans since they felt you could enjoy it without having seen the original:

Don’t Breathe 2 pleased a lot of fans considering so many of them were going out of their way to recommend it to other people on social media. The movie blends elements of horror with an action thriller.

The movie opened at No. 2 last weekend behind 20th Century Studios’ Free Guy starring Ryan Reynolds. It nabbed $10.6 million against a reported $15 million production budget.

How Fans Think It Measures Up To The First Don’t Breathe Film

A big question that comes up when a movie like this gets a sequel is how it compares to the movie before it. On social media, a lot of people got into conversations about how Don't Breathe 2 worked next to the 2016 movie, and there’s a lot of different opinions on the subject. To start, this person felt it lived up to the original very well:

One fan felt it was even better than the first film, and she wasn’t the only one. As we know, especially when it comes to horror movies, being into a sequel doesn’t always happen, but for many, the content surpassed their expectations from the 2016 film:

Unlike the first film being helmed by Fede Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues took the helm here for Don’t Breathe 2. He co-wrote and co-produced the first movie with Alvarez, and the sequel marked his first directing gig as Alvarez stepped aside from the camera. The collaborators are working together next on the upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, which is expected later this year.

Even with all the praise we’re seeing here, there’s apparently some “hate” too, though it didn’t overshadow these mostly positive words on social media. Keep in mind, Don’t Breathe 2 received a B from moviegoers on CinemaScore, which is close to 2016's Don’t Breathe, which got a B+. Here’s another comparison to the original:

Now this one didn’t like it as much as the original. As you can see, there’s a lot of differing opinions about Don’t Breathe 2 but there definitely seems to be more positive than negative. That being said, let’s dive into some of the criticism from fans.

Some Fans Thought Don’t Breathe 2 Was Super Brutal And Messed Up

So here’s the thing: Don’t Breathe 2 does a bit of a 180 because it changes the perspective on the story. In the first film, Norman Nordstrom is the villain and in Don’t Breathe 2, he becomes somewhat of an antihero. It bothered a lot of people that the filmmakers decided to make the blind man someone to root for, because it’s confusing and kind of messed up. As one person shared:

Yeah… as the user shared he “aggressively hated” Don’t Breathe 2 for its decision to make Norman more a sympathetic character despite him being so unlikable in the first movie. According to producer Fede Alvarez, this was done to “fuck with people” and show that things are “not black and white.” That may be so, but it didn’t stop fans from calling out the movie:

Hey, it’s true that many horror characters are not necessarily the types of people we’d want to spend our time with, but to some people, it crossed an unnecessary line. And in other news, it was even one child’s first theatrical experience, which might be even more messed up than the movie itself, as one person tweeted:

The first one is more of a classic horror movie as three friends break into the blind man’s home and wind up facing their wrath. Don’t Breathe 2 follows said blind man as he must save his daughter from even worse people than himself, which is confusing. This Twitter user summed it up well:

Whether that’s a good thing or reason to skip it is up to the viewer! Now it’s your turn. What did you think about Don’t Breathe 2? You can vote in our poll to share your thoughts on Don’t Breathe 2, and follow along here on CinemaBlend for more upcoming horror releases this year and next year. Stay tuned in the coming months for reactions to movies like Candyman, Malignant and Halloween Kills.

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It’s fitting that Friday the 13th is this week, as the follow up to 2016’s Don’t Breathe arrives on Friday, August 13. Stephen Lang returns as the blind Norman Nordstrom in Don’t Breathe 2, set eight years after the original. In the sequel, Nordstrom lives with 11-year-old Phoenix, but after she is kidnapped, he must use his military training to save her. The horror thriller features Madelyn Grace as Phoenix, along with Brendan Sexton III, Bobby Schofield, Rocci Williams, Adam Young, and Christian Zagia. The movie was directed by Rodo Sayagues (in his directorial debut) and the screenplay was co-written by Sayagues and Fede Álvarez, who directed the first film.

As previously stated, Don’t Breathe 2 will debut in theaters on Friday, August 13, and it looks absolutely brutal. Critics have started releasing their reviews of the action thriller, so let’s take a look at what they’re saying.

Starting with the CinemaBlend side as always, Eric Eisenberg was disappointed with Don’t Breathe 2, rating it 1.5 out of 5 stars. While he thought the violence was satisfying, that’s about the only thing he enjoyed, and argued that this sequel is a disaster. Eisenberg noted that the biggest problem in the horror thriller is that Lang’s Nordstrom is a terrible protagonist. The filmmakers try to make viewers root for the blind man, but it’s impossible to forget that he did some truly monstrous things in the original film. The attempt to make viewers sympathetic towards him was “gross,” according to Eisenberg, and he said:

Benjamin Lee from The Guardian shared a lot of Eisenberg’s sentiments about Don’t Breathe 2, noting that it should instead be titled Don’t Breathe 2: Don’t Bother. For one, he argued that a sequel to the first film wasn't even necessary. And two, he noted that, after seeing what Nordstrom was capable of in the first installment (ahem, he’s a murderer and a rapist), why should we care about what happens to him? The movie never gives us a real answer, according to Lee, and thus viewers really don’t care about any of the characters. Lee said:

The portrayal of monster-turned-savior is something quite a few critics just couldn’t get past, as evidenced above, and is again shared in Chris Evangelista’s review for SlashFilm. While he thought it was commendable that the action horror flick at least tried something new (aka, make the slasher character into someone heroic) rather than recycle the same ideas from the first movie, he thought it “asks for too much sympathy for the devil.” Evangelista thought Lang and Grace were at least quite good in their performances, but the problem is that they weren’t given much to work with, saying:

While Aaron Neuwirth from We Live Entertainment thought there were some clever bits in the action movie, he also thought the attempt to turn The Blind Man into an anti-hero didn’t work. He thought the filmmakers were eventually going to provide a justification for rooting for Nordstrom, but it never came, and he also thought the horror film wasn’t even very scary. Neuwirth said:

Jude Dry from IndieWire actually had more of a positive opinion of Don’t Breathe 2, in stark contrast to the previous critics listed. She thought the plot twists were clever, as well as the cinematography. She enjoyed many performances, specifically Stephen Lang’s as The Blind Man. She thought the plot lacked real depth, though, and tried to hard to grasp for it, like in a certain scene towards the end, saying:

Well, it seems like most critics really disliked this movie. Will audiences feel a different way? We'll soon find out, when the horror thriller releases only in theaters on Friday, August 13.

In the meantime, you can plan your next movie-going experience with our 2021 new movie release guide.

In late summer 2016, Fede Alvarez surprised the hell out of audiences with Don’t Breathe. A follow-up to the director’s excellent Evil Dead reboot, the film successfully turns the typical home invasion setup on its ear, and with a complicated trio of protagonists and a shocking villain it unleashes a series of dark twists that keep you guessing about the way things are going to turn out. It’s an intelligent, brutal, and well-made thriller that also happens to be very rewatchable – which only makes one wonder more intensely how things went so horribly wrong in the making of its disaster of a sequel.

Like its predecessor, Don’t Breathe 2 is co-written by Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues (though Sayagues takes the helm this time for his directorial debut), and it’s bizarre just how badly it misinterprets what’s so great about the original. Gone are the complicated and sympathetic characters, not to mention the unique approach to subgenre, and what’s left is the expectation that we’re supposed to root for a murderer/rapist in a plot that manages to be both disappointingly basic and ludicrously stupid. It’s successfully just as hardcore as its predecessor as far as vicious violence is concerned, but by the time the third act rolls around it doesn’t inspire screams and gasps so much as it inspires embarrassed laughter.

Not bothering to make any kind of connection to the first movie, Don’t Breathe 2 begins an indeterminate amount of time after we last left blind madman Norman Nordstrom (Stephen Lang), and opens with a shot of a young girl trying to get away from a burning house. Cutting to eight years later, we learn that said young girl is named Phoenix (Madelyn Grace), and she has been unofficially adopted by Nordstrom as his new daughter to replace the one that was killed in a car accident years before. He trains her to be a survivor, having her run various tests and drills, but also forces her into a sheltered life and rarely lets her leave their house.

The movie then orchestrates another home invasion, albeit this time those doing the invading are personality-lacking thugs (Adam Young, Bobby Schofield, Rocci Williams, Christian Zagia) led by a creep named Raylan (Brendan Sexton III). Their target is Phoenix, whom they hope to capture after killing Nordstorm, and while their true motive is maintained as a mystery throughout most of the film – I have no intention of spoiling it here – it should be known that the ultimate answer is far, far dumber than anything you can imagine while reading this review.

While Stephen Lang’s Norman Nordstrom makes for a great villain, he is a terrible protagonist.

There is no arguing against the fact that Stephen Lang’s Norman Nordstrom is the greatest aspect of Don’t Breathe, but what’s so puzzling about the sequel is that it seems to totally misinterpret what could be previously appreciated about the character. In most films, the blind, elderly veteran who finds himself the victim of a break-in is a fish-in-a-barrel sympathetic individual, but all of that goes out the window when it’s revealed in the original that he is a horrible, vengeful monster who is capable of great evil. That established, it is beyond reason why Don’t Breathe 2 thinks the best course of action is to try and realign him as sympathetic and attempt to make him the person you root for in the story.

This approach may end up being functional for audiences who have either not seen the first movie or have forgotten the details of its plotting, but not for anyone else. Everyone who remembers the whole “chaining up a woman in his basement and impregnating her against her will” thing will be horrified by the genuine attempts to make you cheer for Nordstrom as though he can be imagined as a respectable guardian for Phoenix. Don’t Breathe 2 tries to re-contextualize his cruelty and ruthlessness as “badass” in the name of saving someone he cares about, but it never ceases to feel anything but gross.

Don’t Breathe 2 is lacking any real sympathetic characters, and that makes it sincerely challenging to engage with.

The issues with the misguided attempt to realign Norman Nordstrom don’t just stop there, however, as the move really poisons the entirety of Don’t Breathe 2. Not only is Nordstrom impossible to relate to as the “hero,” but that becomes a cascading issue in the movie, as there is not a single likable character to be found in the whole mess (save for Phoenix, but she is more unfortunate victim than anything else). The protagonists played by Jane Levy and Dylan Minnette in the original may be criminals, but they’re also human and relatable – the former trying to get money so that she can escape an abusive household with her sister, and the latter being deeply in love with her.

The sequel doesn’t even feature a shadow of anything like that. Seemingly in aid of trying to maintain a mystery behind the motive of the home invaders, none of them are given any kind of distinctive personalities or relationships, and instead merely exist as bodies on the screen that Nordstrom can dispose of in various bloody set pieces. What ends up happening is that you’re just watching all manners of ugliness play out on the screen, and you’re able to engage with none of it – meaning that there are zero stakes and that there is no momentum to speak of in the storytelling. Even at just 98 minutes it feels interminable.

Those exclusively looking for violence and brutality from Don’t Breathe 2 are the only ones who will leave satisfied.

Really the only aspect that remains satisfyingly consistent from Don’t Breathe to Don’t Breathe 2 is the visceral style. Rodo Sayagues does a solid job maintaining the bleak atmosphere and aesthetic of his filmmaking partner, replete with long, lingering tracking shots through stark and dark production design, and his eye is equally unflinching in its depiction of violence. The best creative energy that the movie has going is its physical horror, whether it’s Nordstrom supergluing the mouth and nostrils of one of the home invaders (a circumstance that is remedied with the help of a rusty screwdriver) or jamming a bell down a guy’s throat so that Nordstrom can hear him move around. Without any substance to surround any of it, though, these are fleeting cinematic pleasures for genre fans.

To the credit of Don’t Breathe 2, the movie doesn’t commit the cardinal sin of sequels by just being the same story as its predecessor told a different way (despite the return to the home invasion setup) – but its actual approach isn’t much better than that. It subtracts so much of what was great about the original, and makes a huge miscalculation in changing the focus, and then problems continue to compound with its paper thin characters and utterly ridiculous secret plot. If you have a desire to maintain your present appreciation of Don’t Breathe, this is definitely a film to skip.

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Avatar is, once again, the highest grossing movie of all-time. The sequels to the movie have been highly anticipated, and expected for over a decade. For all that time James Cameron had promised fans that we would get more Avatar. And yet, the writing of the projects took so long that a lot of people likely assumed they would never happen. Two more movies eventually became four more movies, they continued to move forward, and then production on the next two films actually got underway. Now Avatar villain Stephen Lang who we understand will be a big part of all the movies, has actually finished filming the next two films.

If there's anything that makes the Avatar sequels feel like they might actually happen, it's the words of Stephen Lang, who played Colonel Quaritch in the original film. He'll somehow be returning to the franchise despite the fact that his character did not survive the movie. Lang tells EW that, while the possibility of him needing to return to pick some small details exists, he has otherwise completed the next two Avatar films. The actor says...

The extent of Stephen Lang's role in those next two movies is, like every other aspect of the Avatar sequels, is mostly unknown. But he's believed to continue to be the major antagonist of the rest of the franchise. As such, his screen time is probably considerable, and so the fact that he's done likely means that principal photography on the next two movies is close to being done overall.

Production is currently underway on the next two Avatar films, which are set to be released in December of 2022 and 2024 respectively. The last we heard, the plan was for everybody to reconvene after the release of Avatar 3 to get to work making Avatar 4 and Avatar 5, although that plan was devised prior to when Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, so it's possible things could change. Apparently a large portion of Avatar 4 is also being filmed along with the next two movies.

With Avatar 2 set to open in 16 months it's finally starting to feel real. And considering how long the movie has been in production, and how much work is likely finished, we could see a teaser trailer as early as the end of this year, getting fans hyped for what will actually be coming a year later.

The following story contains very mild spoilers for the upcoming sequel Don’t Breathe 2. Nothing plot spoilery, but a few theme bits you might not want to know, so proceed cautiously, if you choose.

The horror genre specializes in sequels. Heck, we have SIX Paranormal Activity movies, with a seventh on the way. That’s ludicrous. Every once in a while, though, a horror sequel does more than just regurgitate what worked in its predecessor. It thinks outside of the box, and elevates the game in ways that the audience does not expect. Don’t Breathe 2 is one of those horror movies. The first half feels vaguely similar to the plot of the original, with The Blind Man (Stephen Lang) dealing with intruders who shouldn’t be in his home. But then the movie pivots, and in the above interview clip, Lang tells CinemaBlend that this is exactly why he saw Don’t Breathe 2 as an opportunity to provide a “rich” follow up to a surprise hit.

The twist that was waiting for audiences at the end of Don’t Breathe was an unexpected gut punch, a horrifying reveal that has ruined turkey basters for most aspiring chefs. A traditional sequel might have followed the characters of Rocky (Jane Levy) and Diddy (Emma Bercovici), who we last saw boarding a train for California.

But from the opening frame of Don’t Breathe 2, director Rodo Sayagues (who co-wrote the original) makes it clear that we are not picking up the thread of the first story, and instead are going in unexpected new directions. Stephen Lang told CinemaBlend that the main reason why he never feared that Don’t Breathe 2 would simply recycle what worked about Don’t Breathe is because he has placed full trust on Sayagues and producer Fede Alvarez, who serve as gatekeepers for this franchise. Lang said:

You can understand why Stephen Lang might be protective of the plot developments of this character. He created The Blind Man in the first film, and if this franchise has any hope of continuing, he needs to fight to ensure that the story is doing right by him. The moment an audience loses interest or faith in a central character, there’s no motivation to return.

Don’t Breathe 2 gives you plenty of reasons to spend more time in the presence of The Blind Man. Just be aware that when he is around, it’s usually very unpleasant for everyone in his vicinity. See how the story of Norman (Lang) develops when Don’t Breathe 2 opens exclusively in theaters on August 13.

The following contains very mild spoilers for the upcoming sequel Don’t Breathe 2, so stop reading now and head on over to another wonderful story if you do not want to know anything about the film.

The horror genre often produces a number of surprise hits every couple of years. Scary films can usually pull off their fear tactics on a limited budget, and if the story really connects with an audience, then it’s easy for a studio to have a financial win on its hands. This happened in 2016 with Don’t Breathe, a tense exercise from director Fede Alvarez that performed like gangbusters with horror crowds. That movie has produced a sequel, with Stephen Lang returning, but it was his young costar Madelyn Grace who we recently sat down with and asked her what the hardest scene to shoot was on the sequel. Her answer is in the video above.

There’s not a lot that I am able to tell you about Madelyn Grace’s character from Don’t Breathe 2, even with the spoiler alert at the top of this page. I can tell you that her character, Phoenix, lives with The Blind Man (Stephen Lang), from the first film. And I can tell you that eventually, they have to defend themselves from some pretty nasty dudes. It all escalates very quickly, as one might imagine with The Blind Man being involved.

Don’t let Madelyn Grace’s young age deceive you. The Grey’s Anatomy vet gives it her all in the brutal and often terrifying Don’t Breathe 2. However, when breaking down the hardest scene for her to film, she also made it sound like Don’t Breathe 2 director Rodo Sayagues went the extra mile to make Grace comfortable, and she really appreciated it. The scene she describes involves her being in a box that is filling up with water (I won’t tell you why). And when she thought back to filming on set that day, Grace told CinemaBlend:

“Comfy” usually isn’t a word you expect to hear regarding a horror movie, but that just goes to show that making these movies isn’t anywhere near as tense as watching them. Good for Madelyn Grace. I would have extended that shoot to two days, also, if I had that ability.

You don’t have to have seen the original Don’t Breathe to follow along with the sequel, but it goes without saying that if The Blind Man intrigued you, and you want to see what else he manages to get into, then make sure you check out Don’t Breathe 2 when it opens in theaters, exclusively, on August 13. We will have our review on CinemaBlend shortly, and more junket coverage as the week rolls on.

The Avatar sequels have been many years in the making, and they are closer than they have ever been to actually being in front of fans. James Cameron’s films are doing some exciting things, such as bringing in new actors like Michelle Yeoh. However, they'll also bring back stars from the first film like Sigourney Weaver, who was drawn to the franchise by the emotional stories Cameron is able to tell. Now, Stephen Lang, who is also returning for Avatar 2 despite his on-screen death, has shared his emotional reaction after reading all of the scripts for all of the Avatar sequels.

While speaking to Collider about his new film Don’t Breathe 2, Stephen Lang was asked about the sequels to Avatar and, as you would expect, he didn't give away any plot details or specific information. Despite this, Stephen Lang recalled having an emotional experience while reading James Cameron's scripts, saying:

If Stephen Lang says the scripts for the Avatar sequels left him “weeping," then we're definitely in for a visceral experience. James Cameron does have a knack for telling emotional stories that don’t get lost in the giant blockbuster nature of his movies. The emotion found in Cameron’s films usually drive all the effects, action and whatever new technology he's showing off. All in all, it seems the Avatar sequels are not only going to be bigger and better than the original but even more emotionally effective.

After hearing Stephen Lang's comments on the Avatar sequels, it's honestly not hard to see why James Cameron is able to draw in talented stars for the movies like Kate Winslet, who has worked with Cameron before. And let's not forget that over the course of his illustrious career, Cameron has also worked with the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Zoe Saladana and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Still, even an Oscar-winning director has to keep on his game. James Cameron has talked about the different pressures that have come with making sequels to a mega-hit like Avatar. Doing something different and pushing the franchise forward, while retaining what made the first film special, is quite the challenge, one that actually almost made Cameron fire his entire writer’s room.

But if anyone has the ability to meet such great expectations, it should be James Cameron. And with the Avatar films having been in the works for years now, one would imagine that he's put a lot of thought and care into how he wants to continue the story of Sam Worthington's Jake Sully and Zoe Saldana's Neytiri. You can catch the first of Cameron's sequels, Avatar 2, when it hits theaters on December 16, 2022.

A couple years back, director Fede Alvarez dropped a lean and mean horror film by the name of Don’t Breathe into theaters. The movie turned into a surprise hit, as a pre-Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Jane Levy ran from a menacing blind veteran, played by the always intense Stephen Lang. Fans have been teased about the prospect of a sequel since that first film came out in 2016, and the reward is going to be in theaters soon with Don’t Breathe 2's arrival August. But could more characters be returning from the first film?

That question landed on the table today after a first look photo for the Rodo Sayagues-directed follow-up appeared in USA Today. Showcasing Stephen Lang’s returning character, who survived the events of Don’t Breathe, it appears he’s settled down in a new location and may have even become a better person. But sure enough, the synopsis for Don’t Breathe 2 sets the stage for the next home invasion conflict:

By that description alone, and with only the knowledge that Stephen Lang is returning for Don’t Breathe 2, there’s some possibilities as to who could be hunting him in this new film. One of these could be the surprise return of Jane Levy’s Rocky, who we last saw escaping to Los Angeles with her sister. For one reason or another, Rocky might be looking for revenge, and those past sins could be the infamous turkey baster scene that saw Don’t Breathe become a much talked about film of its class.

Or maybe when Rocky got to Los Angeles with sister Diddy, presumably before Don’t Breathe 2’s events, something happened and Rocky is no longer in the picture. Which could leave Diddy to swear vengeance against Stephen Lang’s potentially former villain, as the synopsis is now talking about “his solace.” So while Don’t Breathe 2 might see “The Blind Man” retired from a life of creepy vengeance, that doesn’t mean his past is done with him.

Of course, there could be other “past sins” that are catching up with Norman Nordstrom, as Don’t Breathe 2’s protagonist was a pretty vicious dude when he wanted to be. Someone could have been wronged before, or after, Don’t Breathe’s chain of events. There’s even a possibility that the parents of Cindy, the woman who killed Norman’s daughter, may have found out that he was her captor. As such, those peaceful days could be coming to an end, as the cycle of parental revenge puts Stephen Lang on the other side of the table.

Don’t Breathe 2 is chugging along to its August 13 release date without fail. And not only should the potential for returning characters strike a chord with fans far and wide, but if Norman Nordstrom is indeed made out to be a hero in this next chapter, the reasoning just has to be wild. You don't come back easily from a twist like the one that first film dropped.

Avatar is back at the top of the all-time box office chart which is a good sign for all the forthcoming Avatar sequels. Said blockbusters luckily were also not delayed in the Walt Disney Company's latest performance of the release date two step. The sequels are on the way, with the first one arriving in December of 2022. And with it will come the return of many characters from the first film, including more than one character that seemingly died. Stephen Lang's Miles Quaritch is one of those returning characters, and he recently spoke to his surprising return.

Stephen Lang's character was the main antagonist in the first Avatar film and according to director James Cameron that won't change throughout any of the sequels. Lang certainly isn't revealing any specifics about the how or why of his character's return, but he does tell ComingSoon that Miles Quaritch will go through a lot of changes over the course of the films, which will keep him interesting both for fans, and for himself as an actor. Lang explains,

While we'll likely need to wait for the movie itself for any sort of plot explanation as to just how Stephen Lang's character will be back, the actor promises that we're not just going to get the same guy again and again throughout the rest of the franchise. Presumably almost dying (or actually dying and then coming back) will have some sort of impact on the character. The best villains are complex and have their own stories and Lang promises that will be the case with his character throughout the Avatar sequels. We won't only be following the journey of our heroes, but him as well.

Stephen Lang's character is perhaps the most curious of the returning characters that we never expected. His character death was fairly unambiguous, being shot in the chest with a couple of arrows. So exactly how he'll be back is unclear. By comparison, Sigourney Weaver's character Dr. Grace Augustine, who also died in the first Avatar still had her memories downloaded into the Tree of Souls, so some sort of explanation for her return can be conjured out of the fantastical elements without much difficulty.

The recent box office success of the original Avatar in China shows that there is still very much an audience for these films, despite the fact that we've gone so long since the first movie and the only major addition to the franchise in that time has been a theme park land. Baring future delays, there have been enough of those, we'll finally see more Avatar next year.

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James Cameron is a legendary filmmaker who is known for his bold vision and record-breaking success stories. 2009's Avatar was a game-changer when it hit theaters, becoming the highest grossing movie of all time in the process. The wait for the Avatar sequels has been a long one, But Cameron and company are currently filming the movies in New Zealand. Actor Stephen Lang will return in a mysterious capacity, and he recently clapped back at a fan who was making fun of the burgeoning franchise.

Stephen Lang played Colonel Miles Quaritch in the original Avatar movie, one of the main antagonists against the Na'vi and Pandora. The character seemingly perished after being shot by Neytiri's arrows, but Lang is still expected to appear in Avatar 2. Someone recently tweeted at Lang saying "The only thing good about the first movie was Stephen Lang. Hope he coms back," which got a big reaction from the actor. While the tweet has since been deleted, Lang's response has gone viral. Check it out below.

Well, that was honest. It looks like Stephen Lang didn't appreciate the backhanded compliment about his role in the Avatar franchise. And the Don't Breathe actor made his feelings perfectly clear on social media.

The above tweet comes from the personal Twitter account of Stephen Lang. His clap back to the Avatar naysayer was seemingly effective, as the original tweet has since been deleted. But that hasn't stopped the twittersphere from getting ahold of Lang's response. While the fate of his character Miles Quaritch remains ambiguous, but clearly Stephen Lang is a badass in his own right.

Moviegoers can re-watch the original Avatar movie over on Disney+. You can use this link to sign up for the streaming service.

This type of response from Stephen Lang likely could have been avoided. It's only because the original twitter tagged the actor that he was even made aware of this particular hot take. And while they did compliment Lang's performance, it was a backhanded one that clearly annoyed the 68 year-old actor. As such, he took the time to defend the first Avatar movie, while also teasing his upcoming role in the sequels.

In the above clap back, Stephen Lang confirmed his return in Avatar 2, while also being careful not to reveal any of the blockbuster's secrets. James Cameron recently revealed that the first sequel is already in the can, while filming continues for Avatar 3. It's currently unclear if Lang will be playing Quaritch again, or a new role entirely.

Of course, Stephen Lang isn't the only Avatar actor who is returning for the sequels under mysterious circumstances. Sigourney Weaver is also set to play a major role in Avatar 2, despite her character also dying in the first installment. Weaver is expected to play a different person entirely, but photos from the set revealed her looking like original character Grace.

Clearly there are plenty of questions surrounding Avatar 2 and its other future sequels. But James Cameron and company have been keeping their cards close to the chest, including Stephen Lang. And although he's careful to guard the sequel's secrets, the actor is all too happy to shut down haters that are tagging him online.

Avatar 2 is currently set to arrive in theaters on December 16th, 2022. In the meantime, check out our 2020 release list to plan your next movie experience.

As part of the fallout of the coronavirus spreading across the globe, many film productions have shut down in order to keep its cast and crew members safe. The Avatar sequels are among the cinematic projects that are now on hiatus, and Stephen Lang, a.k.a. Colonel Miles Quaritch in the Avatar universe, has responded about the delay.

Commenting on the news about the Avatar sequels ceasing production, Stephen Lang offered a hopeful sentiment for those concerned about the future of the franchise:

In addition to his assuring words, Stephen Lang also delivered a Na’vi phrase in his tweet, which translates in English as, “I see you.” It’s now been a little over 10 years since the first Avatar movie was released, so needless to say that a lot of anticipation has been built for the next chapter of director James Cameron’s sci-fi world.

As of last week, the plan was for the Avatar executive team, which may or may not have included James Cameron, to fly from Los Angeles back to New Zealand to resume filming Avatar 2, Avatar 3 and parts of Avatar 4. Because the COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of slowing down, that trip was cancelled, and production has been postponed indefinitely.

It goes without saying that shutting down filming on the Avatar sequels for the foreseeable future was a good call in order to decrease the chances of the coronavirus spreading among those working in front of and behind the cameras. However, it’s also worth mentioning that New Zealand has set up some major travel restrictions, including that any international travelers coming into the country must spend at least 14 days in quarantine.

So even if the Avatar cast and crew wanted to keep working, there’s really no feasible way they could have done so. We’ll have to wait and see when the Avatar sequels resume production, but it’s certainly in good company with other blockbusters that have pressed the pause button, such as The Batman, The Matrix 4, Jurassic World: Dominion and Fantastic Beasts 3.

As things stand now, Avatar 2 is set for release on December 17, 2021, and the following three sequels will arrive on December 2023, December 2025 and December 2027, respectively. That said, there’s a distinct chance that if production remains shut down for a long time, some or all of those release dates could be pushed back. As if we haven’t waited a long time for the Avatar sequels already, but hey, safety is the priority here.

Although Miles Quaritch was seemingly killed by Neytiri with two arrows to the chest in Avatar, we’ve known for almost a full decade that Stephen Lang will be reprising the character. While we still don’t know how Quaritch will be brought back into play, he will continue serving as the main antagonist for the sequels.

Stephen Lang isn’t the only Avatar actor who played a now-deceased character who’s returning for the next installments. Sigourney Weaver will also be back, although rather than reprising the late Dr. Grace Augustine, she’ll be playing someone else who hasn’t been identified yet.

Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on the Avatar franchise. In the meantime, find out what movies are still set to come out later this year with our 2020 release schedule, though keep in mind that dates are subject to change as these trying times with the coronavirus continue.

The surprises about Avatar never end. That James Cameron's 2009 film became the highest-grossing movie of all time for 10 years is a marvel. That 10 years later we're still waiting on a sequel is unexpected. That FOUR planned sequels are ahead is a full-on shock. And that Avatar's villain, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) -- who was apparently killed in the end -- is coming back for not just Avatar 2 but all of the planned sequels? OK. That sounds bonkers, but In James Cameron We Trust.

Stephen Lang was surprised to learn he was returning too. He recently weighed in on his incredible journey so far with Avatar, and everything they still have to come, promising a "broader canvas" in Avatar 2 and also an evolution for his character.

Stephen Lang was put on notice back in 2017 when James Cameron publicly announced Quaritch would remain Avatar's villain for the sequels. Here's what Cameron told Empire at the time:

Considering anyone who watched Avatar seemingly watched Neytiri kill Quaritch, Avatar 2 will have to explain his return, which could be done in any number of ways. For his part, Stephen Lang told The National it felt satisfying to know James Cameron wanted him to come back that much:

It sounds like a lot of character work is ahead for Quaritch, last seen as the head of mining operation RDA's private security detail. Here's more from Lang:

James Cameron has four more Avatar films planned, with Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 filmed at the same time, along with pieces of what's to come. But Cameron has said himself that if Avatar 2 and 3 don't make enough money, chances aren't good for Avatar 4 and 5 to hit the big screen.

However, Stephen Lang is certainly operating from the standpoint that he's making four more films as Quaritch, and he definitely wants to show the character's evolution from Avatar, instead of making him a static two-dimensional villain. He previously teased how the world of Pandora would affect Quaritch deeply. Here's more on that to The National:

Yes, by no means finished. James Cameron's plans for Avatar set a new definition for ambitious. He's also said he hopes the sequels are as successful as Avengers: Endgame, which dethroned Avatar in 2019 as the highest-grossing movie of all time. Cameron is pretty certain Avatar will get that title back with a re-release, and other Avatar 2 stars have also sounded pretty confident.

The bar for Avatar is pretty much that high. Doing well may not be enough, considering the investment. It needs to capture that zeitgeist again. Will it? I'm curious to see what James Cameron has been cooking up. So far, we've just seen sneak peeks of the sequels, showing off huge set pieces and some beautiful concept art.

Avatar 2 is currently scheduled for release on December 17, 2021. Here's what we know so far about the first sequel.

Last week, James Cameron’s Avatar celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Can you believe it has been a decade since the Na’vii epic? Looking ahead, there is a ton more planned for the franchise, including the return of Stephen Lang’s Colonel Miles Quaritch! Although many of us would have guessed two arrows in the chest would be deadly, no one really dies in Hollywood! Lang teased his upcoming role in Avatar 2 with these words:

So awesome! We haven’t seen the last of Colonel Miles Quaritch. Although the 67-year-old actor didn’t believe James Cameron at first, as he told Deadline, the Avatar filmmaker had plans for his character to continue all along. Back in 2017, Cameron even hinted at Stephen Lang’s Avatar character being the main baddie in all four planned films in the franchise. Check out what Cameron previously said:

Now who knows? Plans may have changed since 2017, but Stephen Lang is definitely coming back for Avatar 2 and likely in a very big way! James Cameron recently wrapped a back-to-back production on Avatar 2 and 3 ahead of release dates set for December 21, 2021 and December 22, 2023. Disney also has a slot placed for a fourth and fifth movie in December 2025 and 2027! So strap in for more blue for the majority of the 2020s! But, according to one Avatar producer, these movies will be able to stand alone.

Along with the return of Stephen Lang, Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully, Zoe Saldana’s Neytiri and Sigourney Weaver’s Dr. Grace Augustine will also be part of cast. Avatar 2 has a packed cast, but notably Kate Winslet is joining to play a role titled Ronal, and Jermaine Clement for a character named Dr. Ian Garvin.

After a decade reign, Avatar was recently surpassed at the highest-grossing movie of all time by Avengers: Endgame. The Marvel culmination beat out the 2009 film for the record by $7.8 million for a $2.97 billion in global box office earnings. James Cameron believes it’s a “certainty” his upcoming Avatar sequel will take back the top spot its predecessor held. But in the 2020s, will the Avatar franchise be as successful as it was over a decade prior?

Recently, James Cameron produced a sequel to another popular one of his franchises, Terminator. He even brought back Linda Hamilton in the role for the first time since 1991. Yet, Dark Fate struggled at the box office with a $261 million gross, after a $185 million reported production budget – making it one of 2019’s many sequel bombs.

What do you think? Will Avatar be as big of a success as Avengers: Endgame? Are you excited see more of Stephen Lang’s Colonel Miles Quaritch? Leave a comment below!

We still don't know much about the plot of the upcoming Avatar sequels, but one puzzling thing we do know is that among the cast are a few actors whose characters were presumed dead at the end of the first film. Among those actors is Stephen Lang, who played the merciless Colonel Miles Quaritch. Stephen Lang recently shed a little light on what is going on with his villain in the Avatar sequels, saying:

The Quaritch we saw in 2009 was very much a standard villain. He was inflexible in his views, and the only thing that really changed over the course of the movie was the amount of force he chose to exert to achieve his desired outcome. Based on Stephen Lang's comments to Slashfilm, it sounds like the villain will have a much different story in the Avatar sequels and one that actually digs into his psyche as a character.

In the first Avatar, Quaritch knew his job, his goals and the role he was meant to play on Pandora. As Stephen Lang says, his place has now gotten more complicated. And I have to imagine that that has something to do with the fact that he is no longer dead, even though he almost certainly was after taking a couple Na'vi arrows dipped in neurotoxin to the chest at the end of the first film.

We've been wondering since it was announced that Stephen Lang was returning how exactly Quaritch will come back from that. James Cameron hasn't revealed how he will come back, but has reminded everyone that this is a science fiction story. Couple that with Stephen Lang's comments here, and it sounds to me like Quaritch might be brought back by Pandora itself.

Stephen Lang says that Pandora will affect him deeply, and what happens gets under his skin. So I'm thinking that somehow, the biology on Pandora, which borders on magic, will revive Quaritch. But he will not be the man he once was, at least, not entirely. The only problem with this is that the first film showed Pandora and Eywa as sentient, so why would it bring back someone hell-bent on hurting it?

Quaritch has been described as the Darth Vader of the sequels, and James Cameron has said that the character will "evolve" over the course of the saga. Whatever brings Quaritch back may slowly take over him, and see him evolve into something that is more Pandora than man, much as Anakin became more machine than man.

This would definitely create an interesting internal struggle for the character, and that sounds like Stephen Lang is describing. In such a scenario, Quaritch would be brought back and be benefitting from the very thing he is trying to destroy. If whatever brings him back also confers upon him new powerful abilities, that could explain how he'll prove a foe for Jake Sully and his family over the course of 3-5 films.

Moviegoers still have a ways to go to find out. Principal photography is finished but as Stephen Lang says, the films are by no means completed. There is still a ton of work to be done on these blockbusters before they awaken from cryosleep in 2020 to dominate the box office.

Avatar 2 arrives on December 18, 2020. For movies arriving a little bit sooner, check out our 2019 Release Schedule.

It's no secret that we're in the midst of a horror renaissance. Rather than stale franchises and cheesy villains, the horror genre has seen the ride of new and exciting properties. These projects have been met with both critical acclaim and box office success, making room for even more installments and scares. Many of the best horror movies from the past few years have come to us from Blumhouse Productions, which is helping to revamp the horror genre as we know it. This includes hits like Get Out, Insidious, and Don't Breathe. The latter was a truly terrifying ride, and now it looks like we may be getting a possible sequel in the future.

While there has been no official announcement for a Don't Breathe sequel, it does appear that the early talks and development stages have begun. Actor Stephen Lang starred as the film's blind villain, and recently let slip that there are plan to bring his horrifying character back for a sequel. When Lang was recently asked if he'd be interested in bringing back his character, he said answered with "Oh yeah, we're doing a sequel." So gear up horror fans, because The Blind Man will be back for more mayhem and horror in the future.

Stephen Lang's comments to Screen Rant are sure to excite the horror fans who were both captivated and terrified by his performance in Don't Breathe. While the movie originally painted The Blind Man as a victim, things quickly took a turn when Rocky and her friends broke in and attempted to rob him. Once they were caught, escape seemed nearly impossible, as the Blind Man chased them through his house of horrors. The result was extremely tense, and a film that should definitely be given new life with a potential sequel.

Of course, it's important to note that Stephen Lang's statement about Don't Breathe 2 is not an actual confirmation that the film will ever happen. It certainly seems like things are at the earliest stages of development, and the plans for the sequel could very well be squashed by the studio. If there isn't a compelling enough story to explore, Blumhouse could just decide to call it quits on the potential franchise. So we'll just have to wait for a concrete confirmation from the studio before we can officially start the Don't Breathe 2 party.

Narratively, the first film's ending did lay some groundwork for a potential sophomore outing. While her friends perished, Rocky (Jane Levy) was ultimately able to make it out alive, and with the necessary money to get she and her sister out of their abusive household. But The Blind Man also survived, and was able to spin his story into one of triumph and survival to news outlets. Now he's got the ability to continue terrorizing people, and possibly have another captive kept in his horrible basement.

CinemaBlend will keep you updated on Don't Breathe 2. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your trips to the movies this year.

There are a lot of actors who would probably love to be a part of a huge comic book franchise, but there are few who actually espouse those desires publicly. Stephen Lang is one of those actors. In the past, he has shown nerd cred and desire to be a part of a comic book property when he actively campaigned for the role of Cable in Deadpool 2, which ultimately was given to Josh Brolin. But while he seemed well-suited to Cable, there is another character that Stephen Lang would love to play and it's actually one that is already portrayed by someone else...sort of. Here's what the actor had to say:

Let no one ever accuse Stephen Lang of not being a legit comics fan. While far from the most obscure comic book series out there, this is certainly not a modern pick and is less likely to happen than most. For those of you who are only familiar with Marvel characters through their on-screen depictions in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you may be thinking Stephen Lang is talking about taking on the role played by Samuel L. Jackson. Well, not exactly. Comic book characters who have existed for decades have all undergone multiple reboots and iterations, and had their stories told and retold countless times. So the Nick Fury Stephen Lang is talking about is a different Nick Fury than we've seen in the MCU films.

The Nick Fury played by Samuel L. Jackson in the MCU is based on the Ultimate universe version of the character, which was based on Samuel L. Jackson (art imitating art imitating life). The Nick Fury that Stephen Lang talked about to ScreenRant is the original version of the character from the main Marvel universe who was featured in the comic book Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. That comic ran from 1963-1981, and featured the titular character leading a band of elite soldiers during World War II. A version of the Howling Commandos were featured in Captain America: The First Avenger, but Nick Fury was not among them.

Stephen Lang is one of those actors who has a unique and badass look that is well-suited to comic book fare, so it is just a matter of finding the right role for him. While I doubt Disney would want to muddy the waters with another Nick Fury, you can never say never, and perhaps there will be an opportunity for this version of the character down the line. Hopefully one of the various cinematic universes will find a way to use Stephen Lang because he is a talented actor who is pretty gung-ho about getting to portray a comic book character.

While Stephen Lang would love to play Nick Fury, and I imagine he would be a great choice for that version of the character, he has his hands pretty full with the Avatar franchise. Despite his character, the villainous Colonel Miles Quaritch, being killed in the first film, somehow he will be returning to be the recurring villain for the rest of the Avatar films, the first of which hits theaters in 2020. To see Stephen Lang in a big property a little sooner, he will be in the upcoming adaptation Mortal Engines, in theaters on December 14. For all of the biggest movies hitting this year, check out our release schedule.

Warning: Spoilers for Don't Breathe are in play. If you haven't seen the film yet, bookmark this page, and come back after you've seen the movie. Trust us, it's worth it.

Believe it or not, Don't Breathe has generated $88.4 million off of a $9.9 million budget, in a mere 18 days. While that's not exactly Suicide Squad numbers, it's another example of a micro-budget thriller making such a profit that a studio like Sony would be seen as foolish not to cash in and slate Don't Breathe 2 into their upcoming production slate. I, however, believe in the completely opposite viewpoint, and think that making Don't Breathe 2 doesn't really need to happen at all. Though if it does, for some odd and money related reason, it needs to be of a certain blueprint to remain as clever as the first film.

"So why not make a sequel to Don't Breathe," you may be asking yourself. Well, the simplest and most important reason is that a sequel to the misadventures of Rocky and The Blind Man would ruin all that was special about the first film's events. The drama of Fede Alvarez's certified summer hit is self-contained, with the conflict easily set up, engaged in, and drawn to a close. Rocky wants to score a whole bunch of money to get out of town, she goes through Hell to get it, and in the end escapes with her sister to California.

While the film does end with The Blind Man alive, it's highly doubtful he'll be coming after Rocky, unless he somehow pulls a Jaws: The Revenge and makes his way to California to stalk her and her younger sibling. Her happy ending has been earned, and her story need not be revisited, if only because it would require a huge suspension of disbelief to even make a lick of sense. However, if Sony's really keen on keeping Stephen Lang's Blind Man in the picture, there are ways it can be done without sacrificing that first film.

The Blind Man's history is the stuff of legend, and even his own personal backstory could be explored in a spin-off film. His first days as a blind man, and the slow chronicle into madness could be shown on screen, ending with his daughter's untimely death and his quest for vengeance. Or, perhaps, several other gangs of hoods have tried, and failed, to knock him over in the past. After all, Money and his underworld contact couldn't be the only people who knew about The Blind Man's fortune. If a follow-up to Don't Breathe is to be had, it's better to ditch the title and focus on Lang's evil bad ass.

Having said that, the argument still circles back to the plain spoken fact that we really don't need a Don't Breathe sequel. So many other properties become franchised, and a character that was once imposing either becomes a ridiculous joke or becomes a weaker, more sympathetic version of themselves. Delving into The Blind Man's past any further would just demystify him, and in turn take away what scared us about him in the first place. After Fede Alvarez set the character up so perfectly as a methodical madman who wants nothing more than twisted revenge at the end of a turkey baster, anything else would really ruin that deadly serious image.

We shouldn't want to sympathize with The Blind Man, nor should we want to see him become a weaker copy of his former self by fighting off another group of punks who are looking for a quick score. Just as Don't Breathe was a chance to let an original thriller flourish in a market of sequels, adaptations, and re-imagined concepts, we now have a chance to show that the traditional way isn't always the right way. If anything, Sony should be giving Fede Alvarez, Jane Levy, and Stephen Lang blank checks and all of the assistance in the world to come up with an original project that's just as lean and mean as Don't Breathe was. The studio can keep the team together, but they really give their players a new field to play on.

Time will tell if this warning is heeded, but for now, we'll just enjoy the fact that Don't Breathe has made so much out of so little, and proven once again that originality can be rewarded. If you haven't gotten to experience a taste of the magic yourself, then you can still see Don't Breathe, as it's in theaters now.

As you may remember, Stephen Lang's character in James Cameron's Avatar, Colonel Quaritch, didn't live to see the end of the movie. Because of this, it was rather surprising news when it was revealed by the writer/director that Quaritch would be destined to become the Darth Vader of the franchise. As it turns out, this news came as quite a shock to Lang as well... even though Cameron had actually told him about the character's future early on.

With his new movie Don't Breathe in theaters next month, I had the pleasure of hopping on the phone with Stephen Lang to talk about his upcoming work. When he started talking about the future of Avatar, I was curious how the news of Quaritch's resurrection was delivered to him. He noted that at no point during the making of the first movie did he think a sequel was inevitable, but it led to a fun chat between him and James Cameron after the 2009 film became a record-shattering hit around the world. Said Lang,

Beyond the positive news delivered to him about the future of his career in the Avatar universe, Stephen Lang also had another big takeaway from this conversation with James Cameron, and his memory of the one they had during the making of the movie. The writer/director never had plans for Avatar to just be one story, but instead was thinking about the project on the most epic of blockbuster scales:

As we now know, James Cameron does indeed have some big and unprecedented plans for the future of Avatar. As we officially learned earlier this year, the writer/director has been hard at work not one, not two, not three, but four sequels, set to arrive in December 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023, respectively. The seven years since Avatar's release has been devoted to developing the four scripts simultaneously, and the plan is to shoot everything all at the same time (hence why Stephen Lang thinks he may ultimately be too busy to possibly play Cable in Deadpool 2).

As always, be sure to stay tuned for more updates about Avatar 2, 3, 4 and 5, and look for Stephen Lang in theaters in Don't Breathe starting August 26th.

When Deadpool started to become a massive hit at the box office, and talk of Cable being in the sequel began, Stephen Lang was one of the first stars to throw his hat into the ring for the part. Posting on social media, "Let's lay some CABLE. You know I want it. This is pre-training. Thanks for spreading the word," Lang made it very clear that he is interested in the comic book movie role. It's entirely possible that he will be in consideration when casting for Deadpool 2 begins, but it's worth noting that there is something important potentially standing between him and the character: production on James Cameron's Avatar sequels.

With his new movie Don't Breathe set to come out in theaters soon, I had the pleasure of hopping on the phone with Stephen Lang recently, and one topic of discussion was his campaign to possibly play Cable in Deadpool 2. He noted that he would definitely love to play the comic book mutant from the future in the currently-developing blockbuster, but also noted that goal might not be realistic due to his other major commitments. Said Lang,

As Stephen Lang points out, 20th Century Fox is the studio behind both Avatar and Deadpool, so the idea of them possibly robbing Peter to pay Paul doesn't seem overly realistic. James Cameron has some absolutely massive plans for the production of his developing sequels, as he plans to actually make all of them at the same time. It's worth noting that Deadpool 2 doesn't have a release date just yet, meaning that there would potentially be no interference in schedules, but given Fox's urgency to make a Deadpool follow-up, there's no guarantee there.

As for Stephen Lang's feelings about playing Cable, it's something that's he clearly would like to do, but he isn't going overboard with expressing his interest in the role. Instead, he's letting the fans do most of the talking for him:

Would you like to see Stephen Lang play Cable in Deadpool 2? Hit the comments section below with your thoughts, stay tuned for more from our interview here on Cinema Blend, and see the actor in action on the big screen in Don't Breathe starting August 26th.

Warning: There are spoilers for Deadpool ahead! You've been warned!

In the weeks leading up to Deadpool's release, there was talk about the chances of Cable appearing in Deadpool 2. Now, thanks to Wade Wilson giving audiences the inside scoop at the end of his movie while wearing a bath robe in Ferris Bueller's house, it's official: Cable will be in the sequel. Aside from giving viewers not familiar with the comics an idea of what Cable's all about, the Deadpool post-credits scene didn't reveal anything else about what to expect from the new addition on the big screen, but depending on how fast Deadpool 2 gets put into production, 20th Century Fox will undoubtedly start looking for actors to play the time traveling mutant.

So what are the main criteria for choosing an actor to play Cable? He has to be an older gentleman (sorry, Keira Knightley), he has to bring the right balance of toughness and tragedy, and most importantly, he has to be as bulked up as possible. Using these guidelines, we've picked six actors who would be the best fit to play Cable in Deadpool 2, and maybe beyond. As his first cinematic appearance, it's important that Cable is done justice in the Merc with the Mouth's follow-up, and we think these folks have what it takes.

Stephen Lang

One only needs to look at Stephen Lang to understand why he's on this list. The grey hair, those huge arms, the age: the resemblance is uncanny. Just imagine one of his arms being bionic and the other holding a massive gun, and it would look like Cable jumped straight out of the comics. Even better, Lang is already campaigning to play Cable online by showing off his biceps pre-training, and they're impressive. If you watched Lang as Avatar's villain, Colonel Miles Quaritch, you know this guy is good at playing the badass, so let's turn it around and make him a benevolent badass. Pack on a little more muscle to those already huge arms, and we have a winner on our hands. Even if he doesn't get to Cable-levels of mass (and that's also ignoring the ridiculous sizes from '90s comics), Lang's still big and aggressive enough that you can imagine him surviving in a post-apocalyptic timeline by any means necessary. That what's more important in the long run.

Ron Perlman

Like Stephen Lang, Ron Perlman is at the right age and has a good amount of bulk to bring Cable to life. Acting-wise, he could also bring the right levels of emotion for a character who grew up in a hellish timeline and is desperate to stop it from happening in the past. Perlman's acting credits include a good mix of good and bad guys, and playing Cable would put a big notch in the former section. Plus, his low-key demeanor would be a great contrast to Ryan Reynolds' brash sense of humor. If chosen, Deadpool 2 would be his latest comic book project, having played Hellboy on the big screen and his voice credits including Slade on Teen Titans, Clayface on Batman: The Animated Series, Sinestro on Green Lantern: The Animated Series, and more. If DC doesn't snatch Perlman up to play Swamp Thing in Justice League Dark, Fox would be wise to recruit him for Cable.

Dolph Lundgren

In the Deadpool post-credits scene, one of Wade suggestions for Cable was Dolph Lundgren, and that's actually an interesting idea. As one of best-known action stars from the '80s and '90s, Lundgren blasted his way into audience's hearts (and eardrums) with movies like Red Scorpion, Rocky IV, and Masters of the Universe. He even has previous Marvel experience playing Frank Castle in 1989's Punisher. Lundgren has kept firmly rooted in his action days lately with the Expendables movies and countless DTV action flicks, and since he's been keeping up with his bodybuilding, he has the right physicality for Cable. The icing on top of the Cable cake? Lundgren has a black belt in Kyokushin karate, so he's more than capable of looking convincing while doing his own action scenes...minus the occasional too-dangerous stunt. After slowly working his way back into wide releases over the last five years, joining Deadpool 2 would be a wise career move for Lundgren and serve as redemption for the previously-mentioned superhero project.

Jon Hamm

Jon Hamm is the most "out there" entry on this list, but him playing Cable could work. He probably wouldn't have been on anyone's radar for the role had Rob Liefeld not suggested him following Hamm's Golden Globe win last month. The writer also posted a photoshopped image of how Hamm might look as the time traveling mutant. He would obviously have to bulk up, but with action experience from The Town and Sucker Punch on his resume, Cable would be a good next step forward. Hamm has already turned down two superhero roles, but as we all know, Deadpool is no ordinary superhero property. It's equally funny as it is action-packed, which could be more incentive for Hamm to stretch his comedic muscles, having already appeared in projects, like Bridesmaids to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Granted, Cable is one of the more serious X-Men characters, but when paired with Deadpool, his straight man reaction to Wade's shenanigans might be amusing in their own way.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Jeffrey Dean Morgan has already left his own mark on live action comic book media. He played The Comedian in 2009's Watchmen, he's kicking off a recurring stint as Negan on The Walking Dead, and we'll see him cameo as Thomas Wayne next month in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. How can he take things to the next level? By playing Cable. Morgan has the right stature to bring Cable to life, and he's at the right age where he's old enough to play the character, but could also stick around for more sequels or X-Force if necessary. He also has a lot of experience playing intimidating characters, and while Cable is a force for good, he's someone that can terrify any that stand in his way. With some silver hair coloring and a few more trips to the gym, Morgan would make a convincing Cable on the big screen.

Mel Gibson

Another name that Wade Wilson suggested for Cable in the Deadpool post-credits scene was Mel Gibson. The actor definitely has done his fair share of action work, from the Lethal Weapon series to the first three Mad Max movies. He recently jumped back into the genre with Expendables 3 and Machete Kills, so Deadpool 2 would be a good next step up. He would obviously need to gain more muscle, but put a big machine gun in his hand and give him that flat-top, and he's not a bad fit. The thought of merely seeing Gibson with a bionic eye and metal arm is intriguing by itself. There could be issues adding him to Deadpool 2 given the controversies surrounding him over the past decade, but looking at this strictly from a physical and acting perspective, Gibson could certainly fill Cable's boots and make a nice foil for Reynolds' Merc with the Mouth.

Ladies and gentlemen, Cable is on the god damn way. After realizing that they have unknowingly sat on a goldmine all these years, FOX has finally wised up and given fans the Deadpool movie that they have clamored for. The unprecedented box office success of the film has gotten the ball rolling on a sequel, which will bring fan-favorite X-Men character Cable into the equation. Although Cable has only just been announced, casting rumors have begun to swirl like crazy; one actor who has thrown his hat into the ring seems like an absolutely perfect choice: Stephen Lang.

As you can see from the Tweet above, actor Stephen Lang – best known for his work in the box office smash hit Avatar – has thrown down the gauntlet and declared himself ready and willing to take on the role of Cable in the upcoming Deadpool sequel. The response to the Tweet seems overwhelmingly positive, with fans of the character and the Deadpool movie chiming in that Lang would be an absolutely perfect Cable.

We can’t say that we disagree. Just looking at the photo it’s abundantly clear that he looks like Cable incarnate. Check out this side-by-side comparison to see how uncanny the resemblance is between Stephen Lang and Cable: 

For those of you who don’t know, Cable is a fan-favorite character from the X-Men mythos. His actual name is Nathan Summers and he’s a mortal enemy of the godlike mutant Apocalypse; his origin story is incredibly convoluted, but the gist of it is that he’s a time travelling mutant with telepathic powers whose body has been infected with the techno-organic virus – essentially making his body part machine. He has a long history with Deadpool in the comics, and seeing them together on-screen would prove to be a major deal for longtime comic book fans.

If there’s one thing that could possibly work against Lang when it comes time to cast the iconic X-Man in Deadpool 2, it could be his age. Although Cable is inherently an older character, at 63-years-old Stephen Lang will be at the very least halfway to 70 by the time the film hits theaters. Lang very clearly takes care of himself and has the immense physicality for the role of Cable, but at the end of the day a major studio like FOX will want to enlist the acting talents of someone younger in order to increase the longevity of the character – that’s just how franchises work.

Then again maybe I’m wrong; with the success of Deadpool, FOX clearly has evidence that going against the grain and trying something new yields immense benefits. No matter what, Stephen Lang seems like an awesome choice for the endlessly iconic Cable, and we as fans would be delighted to see him take on the role at some point in the near future. We will keep you informed regarding any Deadpool 2 updates as they become available to us. Stay tuned!

The gears on the mighty Avatar machine seem to be spinning at a fairly high rate now. It recently was announced that production on James Cameron’s planned sequels would begin in the fall. And now we’re hearing that a former cast member whom we wouldn’t expect to return actually will be back… and will be a major force (no pun intended) in Cameron’s growing trilogy.

Stephen Lang, who played Colonel Miles Quaritch in Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster, will be back for the next three Avatar films, according to Deadline, and will play a part that’s somehow going to be the "Darth Vader" role in the developing story.

"But … he died," you’ll tell me. I hear you. But Cameron has an answer to that nitpick:

Expect Avatar shenanigans on Cameron’s part as he works the militant Quaritch back into the storyline, which is going to make a few people on the Internet VERY happy. Did you know that there are multiple tributes to Colonel Quaritch online? Some Avatar fans believe that he is the real hero of Cameron’s story, as he was there to protect a team of scientists… and he gave his life to fight an entire planet and keep his "troops" safe. They actually view Sam Worthington’s character as a traitor.

That group of Avatar fan-fiction authors will tap into the Shakespearean aspect Cameron might try to bring to his upcoming Avatar trilogy, perhaps painting Quaritch as someone who was betrayed on Pandora. The pieces are starting to fall into place for what could be an epic storyline, and Cameron knows who he wants to map it out. Deadline notes that Cameron has tasked Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds) to write the first sequel; Rise Of Planet Of The Apes scribes Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver to write the second chapter; and Shane Salerno (Salinger) to draft the third script. Once Cameron begins filming, he’s going to plunge in and shoot all three back-to-back. They are due to hit theaters between 2016 and 2018.

With CBS airing Under the Dome this summer, and Kimberly Peirce’s Carrie remake coming in October, it will already be a good year for Stephen King fans. And that’s not even taking into account all of the other adaptations that have been announced over the last few weeks.

One of the longer-gestating projects is Peter Askin’s take on King’s A Good Marriage, news on which was strangely absent after Joan Allen (The Bourne Legacy) signed on to the cast last year. That is until last week, when Anthony Lapaglia (Without a Trace) was added as her devious husband. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Avatar’s Stephen Lang has joined the indie film, adding one more role to his already overloaded slate.

The Terra Nova star was last seen in David A. Armstrong’s ensemble crime thriller Pawn, and will be seen all over the place in the coming year. He’s joining Luke Hemsworth in the Australian war drama The 34th Battalion, and he’ll be in the Gina Carano revenge flick In the Blood with Danny Trejo. Also, he’ll head the indie remake of the classic horror tale The Monkey’s Paw. And there is still a handful of other under-the-radar projects he’s starring in. The man is a busy one.

For A Good Marriage - which King adapted from his own novella included in the 2010 collection Full Dark, No Stars - Allen will play a wife who finds out her husband (Lapaglia) has been leading a secret life that may implicate him in a vicious kidnapping. Lang will play a retired investigator from the Maine Attorney General’s office obsessed with getting the case solved. The film will also star Theo Stockman, Pun Bandhu and Timothy J. Cox.

There won’t be any lag time between now and the next bit of news, as production on A Good Marriage began this week.

They name children's movies all kinds of weird and wacky things these days - earlier this year we saw a movie called Oogieloves and last year brought Gnomeo and Juliet. But now a new strangely titled kids project has arrived on the horizon and it's called The Nut Job. And it has brought on a cast.

Deadline has learned that Katherine Heigl, Will Arnett, Brendan Fraser, Stephen Lang, Sarah Gadon, and Jeff Dunham will all be lending their voices to the movie, which is being made by the Canada-based animation company ToonBox Entertainment along with Korea's Redrover Co, Ltd. The film is based on a short film from 2005 called Surly Squirrel and is set in the 1950s in a place called Oakton. At the center of it is a squirrel named Surly and a rat named Buddy who try to work out plans to rob a nut store. While Thom Chapman released a statement saying , "Each voice is perfect for their respective roles," the news report doesn't say what parts the actors will be playing.

The film is being directed by Peter Lepeniotis, who directed the original short, and is being written by Lorne Cameron, a former Walt Disney Animation writer who worked on projects such as Brother Bear and Over The Hedge. This will be Lepeniotis' first feature gig, but he previously served as an animator on films including Toy Story 2, Casper, and Fantasia/2000. To get a sense of what the movie will be like check out the original short below as well as a promo poster for the theatrical release.

As 2012 kicked off, Gina Carano kicked all kinds of ass in Steven Soderbergh's compelling spy thriller Haywire. The professional MMA fighter turned action heroine pummeled Channing Tatum, devastated Michael Fassbender, and annihilated Ewan McGregor with a fierce and efficient fighting style that's blows were so palpable they made critics crave more. Thankfully despite lackluster box office Carano's getting another shot at action stardom, fronting In the Blood, a thriller created just for Carano and her unique set of talents.

Carano will front the fight-fueled film playing a wife whose husband vanishes during their Caribbean vacation, spurring her into a furious and reckless revenge. We've been on board for this pic since it was first announced, and now THR has received some updates on the men who may share the screen and face off against Carano in her latest venture. Reportedly Stephen Lang (Avatar) and Danny Trejo have entered into talks to join the cast. Should they sign on, Lang will play Carano's hard-assed father that raised her to be a fearsome fighter; and Trejo will take on the role of a thug named Big Biz, who is destined for a sure-to-be epic showdown.

As much as I'm pumped to see Carano attack the big screen again, I'm carefully managing my expectations for In the Blood. First off, rather than Soderbergh, who applied a thought-provoking theme of gender politics to accompany the pulse-pounding brutality his film dealt out, this pic is penned by James Robert Johnston and Bennett Yellin, whose biggest shared credit to date is Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead, and it's being helmed by John Stockwell, whose filmography boasts Blue Crush, Into the Blue, and the here-and-gone Halle Berry-vehicle Dark Tide.

Nonetheless, Carano is an action heroine unlike any I've ever seen before, so I'm rooting for her. Beyond that I'll bet the fight between her and Trejo, who has made a specialty out of playing incomparable badasses, will be worth the price of admission.

In the Blood kicks off production this November. Carano will appear next in Fast Six due out May 24th, 2013. Trejo has a perpetual tidal wave of projects on the way, but the most buzzed about is Machete Kills, which hits theaters on July 31st, 2013.

When he played the central villain in Avatar, Stephen Lang had a pretty cool look. His costume showed off his strong arm muscles, his haircut screamed "marine" and the scars on the side of his head suggested that he was both experienced and dangerous. Now he's all set to play the villain again in Marcus Nispel's Conan The Barbarian, but this time around his costume is just plain awful.

Newsarama has gotten their hands on the first image of the Khalar Zym from the new film and I will say that it looks okay below the neck and Lang looks appropriately angry, but what the hell is up with that hair? Not only is it an obvious wig, but the forehead space and all of the ridges make him look like a Klingon. Perhaps it will look better when it's in motion, but I sincerely doubt it.

Check out the image below and head over to Newsarama to see it full size.

As the best human part of Avatar by far (sorry, Sigourney Weaver), Stephen Lang was bound to have casting offers flooding his way, all from films likely looking for the same hard-bitten badass he was as Col. Miles Quaritch. Now he may have found the first perfect fit-- Latino Review reports that Lang has been offered the role of Khalar Singh, the main villain in the new Conan the Barbarian movie.

As you may have guessed from the character's name, Lang represents a bit of color blind casting-- the character is described as "Asian or Middle Easterns, Central Asian, Mongol Turkish or Persian; commanding in size and manner, a warlord and formidable warrior." That all sounds about right, and so long as they don't try and give Lang some brown body paint, it's pretty much OK that he's lily white. Conan himself, Jason Momoa, won't be white for the first time, so at least that's something.

Latino Review also provided the full description of the role Singh will play in the film, which you can read below. Lang's casting isn't official yet, but we can't expect him to keep up all those muscles for nothing, so I'd expect to see him taking the role before too long.