Sigourney Weaver returned for Avatar: The Way of Water, but not in the way that many expected. Appearing in the first Avatar, Sigourney Weaver plays Dr. Grace Augustine, a xenobotanist who ed the Avatar Program and helped create peace with the Omaticaya clan. Dr. Grace dies in Avatar, but Sigourney Weaver's Avatar 2 character is someone completely different, avoiding one of the sequel's biggest problems.
Avatar: The Way of Water is the long-awaited sequel to the incredibly popular first Avatar film, with James Cameron continuing on his franchise. While the film series mostly focuses on the alien Na'vi and their planet Pandora, Avatar 2 is bringing back several characters from the original film, such as protagonists Jake Sully and Neytiri, as well as the villainous Colonel Quaritch. Sigourney Weaver is one of the biggest name actors in the first Avatar, meaning that her being part of the Avatar 2 isn't surprising. However, the new direction the film takes her character is truly baffling.
Who Sigourney Weaver Plays In Avatar: The Way Of Water
The Sigourney Weaver Avatar: The Way of Water character isn't Dr. Grace Augustine from Avatar, as she died at the end of the first film. Instead, the 72-year-old actress plays a teenage Na'vi named Kiri, who is one of the adopted children of Jake and Neytiri. While this change is shocking, it actually helps Avatar 2 avoid one big sequel problem. Colonel Quartich, who died in the first film after taking two arrows to the chest, is back for Avatar 2, this time in an Avatar body. Quaritch coming back already lessens the stakes of the first film, and if Dr. Grace had also come back, death in the series could have felt completely meaningless.
Since Sigourney Weaver's Avatar 2 character is completely new, it means that death in James Cameron's Avatar is indeed permanent. The lack of plot armor is good — it keeps the tension high, making audience question if characters like Jake or Neytiri could actually die. If Sigourney didn't come back at all in Avatar 2, the possibility would have remained open for her to come back as Dr. Grace in one of the installments leading up to the Avatar 5 movie. Since Sigourney Weaver is back and playing someone else, it proves that Dr. Grace is truly dead.
Sigourney Weaver's Avatar 2 Role Beats The First Movie
While Sigourney Weaver's character was important to the first Avatar, it mostly felt as if she was there to bring some star power to the (at the time) mostly unknown cast. Weaver's role as Kiri in Avatar: The Way of Water, though, is even more interesting than her role in the first movie. Playing a young Na'vi, Sigourney Weaver's Avatar 2 character is more involved in action sequences than Dr. Grace was in the first film. Playing a young character also provided the chance for a more interesting performance, one that pushed veteran acting talent Sigourney Weaver in new directions.
Grace was not the most interesting character in the first movie, but Weaver captures the youthful energy and curiosity of Kiri in a much more challenging role. The best thing about Sigourney Weaver's Avatar 2 character, though, is the emotion it brings to the film. There is still a lot of mystery surrounding Kiri and how she even came to be, but Avatar 2 establishes a connection between Grace and Kiri. It hints at something big to be revealed in future movies with Kiri even seeing a vision of Grace who speaks to her.
How The Other Dead Avatar Characters Are Back In Avatar 2
Apart from Sigourney Weaver returning as a different character, two other actors are reprising their roles somewhat similarly: Matt Gerald and Stephen Lang, who in Avatar respectively played RDA soldiers Lyle Wainfleet and Col. Miles Quaritch - the first movie's main antagonist. Indeed, one of the more interesting reveals about Avatar: The Way of Water is resurrecting Stephen Lang's Col. Miles Quaritch as a Na'vi. Both Wainfleet and Quaritch died in Avatar, but in Avatar 2, they will return as Recombinants.
Avatar 2's Recombinants are the result of the Avatar Program being used to permanently transfer human minds into Na'vi bodies. Led by Quaritch, Wainfleet and the other Recombinants serve as the villains in Avatar 2. Curiously, with the process of Recombinants essentially being a corrupted version of how the Na'vi brought Jake back to life, it's becoming more possible that Kiri and Dr. Grace share a soul. While nothing's been confirmed, the difference between Kiri and the Recombinants could play into the Avatar franchise's core themes of nature vs industry.
What The Sequels Could Hold For Sigourney Weaver's Character
Even with Jake and Neytiri returning for the sequel, the Sigourney Weaver Avatar 2 role of Kiri, along with the other Sully children, is the main focus. The children are a big driving force behind the sequel's story and it feels as though this will become even more so in the Avatar sequels. However, it seems out of all the children, Kiri could hold the biggest significance as there are already some major clues to Kiri's true nature in Avatar 2.
It is clear that Kiri has a connection with Eywa, seeming to communicate with all the life on Pandora. There is also the mystery of her birth, setting her up as some kind of messianic character. Kiri herself doesn't yet understand all these aspects of who she is and why she has these abilities. Even those around fail to recognize the special nature she clearly has, as Kiri is diagnosed with a form of epilepsy. It seems as though Avatar 2 is setting Kiri up to be the unexpected hero of the franchise. As the tensions between the Na'vi and the humans continue to rise, she may be the one to unite both sides.
