James Cameron Says Avatar 2 and 3 Hinge on Their Most Polarizing Character

James Cameron almost yanked the most pivotal newbie in the Avatar sequels out of the story entirely. The character? Spider. And honestly, that would have blown a hole straight through Avatar 2 and 3.

The near-cut that almost broke the sequels

In Avatar: The Way of Water, we meet Miles 'Spider' Socorro, played by Jack Champion. He was born at the RDA base on Pandora and happens to be Colonel Miles Quaritch's kid (Stephen Lang). After Quaritch dies at the end of the first movie, Spider stays behind on Pandora and ends up being raised by Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). So yeah, built-in family drama.

During the writing of The Way of Water, Cameron seriously considered dropping Spider entirely. Not because the character didn't work, but because shooting a human kid among a cast of performance-capture giants is a technical migraine. As Cameron told Entertainment Weekly, the scale difference and constant mixing of live-action and mo-cap was always going to be a beast.

'We knew it was gonna be hard to shoot an actor in live action and surround that character [Spider] with all these people that are twice his size [in performance-capture suits]. I knew it was gonna be all kinds of scale stuff and it was gonna be horrific to do, which it was. I tried to write him out, and it didn't work. It all fell apart because now Jake and Quaritch are only just two guys trying to kill each other. It’s too simple.'

Why Spider matters

• Spider is biologically Quaritch's son but was raised by Jake and Neytiri, which puts him directly between two enemies.
• His choice at the end of The Way of Water to save Quaritch split fans down the middle, and that friction is the point.
• Quaritch in these sequels is a revived version imprinted with the original's memories, and part of him needs to be Spider's father to figure out who he is now.
• That tug-of-war over Spider isn't just emotional color; it's the engine for Jake vs. Quaritch, keeping their conflict from turning into a one-note revenge loop.

Where it goes in Avatar 3

Cameron says the father-son push-pull continues in the third film, Avatar: Fire and Ash. Spider doesn't want the man hunting the people he loves to be his dad, but Quaritch is trying to define himself partly through being that father. The result, according to Cameron, is that Jake and Quaritch end up in a strange, situational alignment because of the kid. Not friends. Not allies. But forced into a dynamic neither wants, which is exactly the kind of messy character knot these movies need.

The date to circle

Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters on December 19, 2025. Expect Spider's role to get even messier, in a good way.

Originally reported by Dan Girolamo for SuperHeroHype.