In the first Avatar movie (which you can watch now with a Disney+ subscription), Sigourney Weaver starred as Dr. Grace Augustine, an exobiologist and head of the Avatar Program on Pandora. Despite meeting an untimely end in the feature, James Cameron announced a few years after its release that the Alien actress would be back for the sequel as a new character. We’ve spent almost a decade wondering how Weaver would fit into the Avatar 2 picture, but that mystery has finally been solved, as her role in the officially-titled Avatar: The Way of Water has been revealed.
While a common guess was that Sigourney Weaver would be back for Avatar: The Way of Water to play the personification of the Tree of Souls, which Grace was brought to in the first movie in a failed attempt to transfer her soul to her Avatar body, in reality, she’s playing a Na’vi named Kiri, who’s the adopted teenaged daughter of Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully and Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri. Check out a crisp image look at this character below:
Well this is quite the twist! Incidentally, although we’re only just now learning that Sigourney Weaver is playing Kiri, this isn’t the first time we’re seeing this character. She can briefly be spotted about a third of a way into the Avatar: The Way of Water trailer swimming underwater. See for yourself!
If you look at the full image of Kiri over at Empire, you’ll see the young Na’vi watching a video recording of Dr. Grace Augustine. In other words, it’s Sigourney Weaver watching Sigourney Weaver… that’s trippy. Regarding getting to play a teenaged character for Avatar: The Way of Water, Weaver, who’s currently 72, told the publication it was a chance to bring out her inner child, saying:
I think we all pretty much remember what we were feeling as adolescents. I certainly do. I was 5’ 10” or 5’ 11” when I was 11. I felt strongly that Kiri would feel awkward a lot of the time. She’s searching for who she is. I was thrilled to be given that challenge by Jim.
James Cameron acknowledged that this was a “big” acting challenge, having “a 60-something actor playing a character [decades younger than] her actual biological age.” But Sigourney Weaver was up to the task, and she ended up workshopping with a group of teenage girls to channel the right kind of youthful energy. The filmmaker continued:
Sigourney just became younger. She looked younger, she had more energy, and she never quite stepped out of Kiri for our whole capture period. She had a glow on her face and lightness in her step and a fun spirit.
Given that Sigourney Weaver is confirmed to also be in Avatar 3, fans can take comfort knowing that Kiri will make it out of Avatar: The Way of Water alive… unless, of course, she’s appearing as yet another character in the threequel, in which case there’s another mystery we have to wrack our brains about. In any case, Kiri’s siblings include Jamie Flatters’ Neteyam, Britain Dalton’s Lo’ak and Jack Champion’s Javier “Spider” Socorro, the latter of whom is a human who was born on Pandora and rescued by Jake and Neytiri. Let’s also not forget Weaver isn’t the only actor from the first Avatar movie who’s back for the sequel despite their character dying. In Stephen Lang’s case though, he’ll be reprising Miles Quaritch, with the main antagonist somehow having been resurrected, though Lang’s performance now involves motion capture.
Avatar: The Way of Water is one of the many 2022 movie releases left to look forward to, opening in theaters on December 16. Avatar 3 will follow on December 20, 2024, and the other two announced sequels are slated for 2026 and 2028, respectively.
