Stephen Lang Says Quaritch Belongs With Avatar: Fire and Ash’s Ash People — Right at Home Among War-Hungry Na’vi
Exclusive: Stephen Lang dissects Quaritch's obsession with Jake Sully — and why Pandora still has him in its grip.
Colonel Miles Quaritch just will not stay simple. He died in the first Avatar, came back in The Way of Water as a recombinant (read: his human memories uploaded into a grown Na'vi body), and now Avatar: Fire and Ash throws him in with a whole new flavor of trouble. And, weirdly, it kind of fits him.
Quaritch 3.0
Stephen Lang says this version of Quaritch is forced to change in ways the old one never would. Back at Hell's Gate, when he was head of security, Quaritch was the guy trying to bend Pandora to human will. He knew it was a losing battle from day one. This time, the biology itself is different. With Na'vi DNA tied to Eywa literally in his system, he cannot just brute-force the moon into submission anymore. He has to adapt in a way that still feels like Quaritch to the part of him that is left.
"He must adapt to Pandora will he or nil he. He's tried to make Pandora adapt to him."
Lang even jokes he should not say Quaritch is one with Pandora, because he is not, but the point stands: Eywa is in him now, and that complicates the mission-first Marine psyche he has always lived by.
Meet the Ash People
Enter the Mangkwan Clan, better known as the Ash People. They are a fire-obsessed, warlike Na'vi culture led by the fearsome Varang, and Quaritch finds himself pulled into their world. This is not the peace-and-balance side of Pandora we have seen before. Think smoke, heat, and a constant itch for conflict. Lang frames their territory as the kind of battlefield atmosphere Quaritch instinctively understands. The sulfur in the air? That is his element. No wonder there is a spark of recognition there.
Sully vs. Quaritch: enemies who get each other
Jake Sully, ever the optimist when it comes to Pandora, believes Quaritch can actually connect to the place. Throughout Fire and Ash, he keeps nudging his old enemy to open up to the natural world. According to Lang, the relationship between Jake and Quaritch has both deepened and split further apart at the same time. They share roots: both Marines, both mission driven, both speaking the same soldierly language. They are also tied together by Spider, the young boy who sits right in the middle of their tug-of-war. Are they competing for him? Protecting him? It keeps shifting, and that push-pull is a big part of what the film is playing with.
Yes, there will be a massive fight
Some traditions you do not mess with. Lang says to expect another Sully vs. Quaritch showdown, and the team is clearly trying to top themselves without repeating the same beats.
"There's a battle royale at the end, a real donnybrook... there's always a fight between Sully and Quaritch in these films. So, somehow you've got to keep kind of upping it."
He compares their clashes to classic heavyweight trilogies: Ali, Tyson, Ali-Frazier. Brutal every time, but never the same fight twice. That is the energy they are chasing.
When you can see it
Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters on December 19.