Her New 'Avatar' Role Sounds ... Interesting

It's been a long time since we've heard updates on the promised sequels to James Cameron's 2009 action flick Avatar, but that's all about to change. According to new reports, Sigourney Weaver has signed on for all three — yes, three — sequels to Avatar . Weaver, who starred in the first movie as Dr. Grace Augustine, one of the few characters that wasn't completely horrible to the natives on Pandora, will be joined by the original film's Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and Stephen Lang.

But while her co-stars will all reprise their original roles, Weaver is in an unusual situation. For those of you who forgot Dr. Augustine's fate in the 2009 flick (I mean, it did come out five years ago), Weaver's character was shot and killed at the end of Avatar — and she won't be rising from the dead any time soon. According to the new reports, Weaver will actually play a completely different role in the new films, which are slated for release in December of 2016, 2017, and 2018.

So who will Weaver play in the new movies? It's not clear what her new place will be within the Avatar universe, but director Cameron did open up and say that her new role will be more "challenging" than her last.

Could this be a hint that Weaver will be playing a character exclusively in CGI? That would make a lot of sense, considering that, while we did see Dr. Augustine "blue-ified" in the first Avatar film during her time in Pandora, a CGI-exclusive character would hide the fact that it was Weaver in a dual role. The Pandora version of Dr. Augustine looked like Weaver, but a new CGI character wouldn't have to — Weaver could have her face altered in post-production, giving her complete freedom to play a new role without having ties to her previous one.

(It's a blue Sigourney!)

This is exciting news, considering that the mega-hit film, which made a ridiculous $2.7 billion at the box-office (yes, billion) has fallen off everyone's radar a little bit, despite the plan of equally epic sequels. Sure, Avatar is basically "Pocahantas in Space," but you really can't argue with the fact that these movies take filmmaking to a whole new level — they basically embody Stanley Kubrick's famous quote, "If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed." (Thanks, super expensive CGI!)

The sequels have a shot at surpassing even the original in innovative filmmaking, and with Weaver back on board the series, I know that I'll turn out with the masses to see them.

Image: 20th Century Fox