Stephen Lang will be the main villain for all four Avatar sequels

The “same motherf—er” is coming back to terrorize the Na’vi in the Avatar sequels. According to director James Cameron, Stephen Lang’s Colonel Miles Quaritch will be the primary antagonist for all four of the resurgent franchise’s next installments.

“The interesting conceit of the Avatar sequels is it’s pretty much the same characters,” Cameron told Empire in a recent interview. “There are new characters and a lot of new settings and creatures, so I’m taking characters you know and putting them in unfamiliar places and moving them on this greater journey. But it’s not a whole bunch of new characters every time. There’s not a new villain every time, which is interesting. Same guy. Same motherf—er through all four movies. He is so good and he just gets better. I know Stephen Lang is gonna knock this out of the park.”

Lang was already confirmed to return for the next Avatar films, even though those specific circumstances are unclear. After all, his character was seen taking a couple massive arrows to the chest at the end of the 2009 blockbuster. Is it possible his consciousness was transferred to the body of a Na’vi? Perhaps his body was recovered by the RDA and nursed back from the brink of death.

Most of the secrets to these films are being kept under wraps, but Cameron previously divulged the second, third, fourth, and fifth sequels will be more of a “family saga” about Jake and Neytiri (Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana) and their children.

Game of Thrones alum Oona Chaplin and Fear the Walking Dead‘s Cliff Curtis joined the cast, which also features the return of Sigourney Weaver.

Avatar 2 is scheduled for release on Dec. 18, 2020 with subsequent installments dropping on Dec. 17, 2021, Dec. 20, 2024, and Dec. 19, 2025.