--- title: 'Avatar': Sigourney Weaver Commits to Sequels (There Will Be Three) description: Director James Cameron and 20th Century Fox have confirmed that Sigourney Weaver will return to the cast for the three new films canonical: https://time.com/2851293/sigourney-weaver-james-cameron-avatar-sequels/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-10T07:21:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:19:01.538Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Avatar': Sigourney Weaver Commits to Sequels (There Will Be Three) og:description: Director James Cameron and 20th Century Fox have confirmed that Sigourney Weaver will return to the cast for the three new films og:url: https://time.com/2851293/sigourney-weaver-james-cameron-avatar-sequels/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a853931a4540e32/698696e0cd68484617095239/sigourney-weaver-avatar.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Sigourney Weaver attends the L.A. Times Hero Complex Film Festival 'Alien And Aliens' screening at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on June 1, 2014 in Hollywood, Califor. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Avatar': Sigourney Weaver Commits to Sequels (There Will Be Three) twitter:description: Director James Cameron and 20th Century Fox have confirmed that Sigourney Weaver will return to the cast for the three new films twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a853931a4540e32/698696e0cd68484617095239/sigourney-weaver-avatar.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sigourney Weaver Signs On to _Avatar_ Sequels (There's Gonna Be Three) ## Video: The Universe of Avatar [Watch (HLS stream): The Universe of Avatar](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/J1o8Mm4J.m3u8) (6:21)  _Published 2009-12-10. Joel Moore plays Norm Spellman in James Cameron's Avatar; he offers Techland a first glimpse at the wondrous world of Pandora_ by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Jun 10, 2014 7:21 AM CUT  Sigourney Weaver attends the L.A. Times Hero Complex Film Festival 'Alien And Aliens' screening at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on June 1, 2014 in Hollywood, Califor. Sigourney Weaver attends the L.A. Times Hero Complex Film Festival 'Alien And Aliens' screening at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on June 1, 2014 in Hollywood, Califor.Paul A. Hebert—Press Line Photos/Corbis by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Jun 10, 2014 7:21 AM CUT It’s been known for months that James Cameron intends to make not one but a trilogy of sequels to his 2009 sci-fi hit _Avatar_, shooting them back-to-back and releasing them in rapid succession between 2016 and 2018\. (Perhaps overkill looks better in 3-D?) Cameron and 20th Century Fox have confirmed that Sigourney Weaver will return to the cast for the three new films, Deadline Hollywood [reported](http://www.deadline.com/2014/06/fox-james-cameron-set-sigourney-weaver-for-three-avatar-sequels/?utm%5Fsource=dlvr.it&utm%5Fmedium=twitter "undefined") on Monday. She’s slated to play a character “different and in many ways more challenging” than Dr. Grace Augustine, the gritty, chain-smoking scientist she portrayed in the first movie — which makes sense, since Augustine died in the original after taking a bullet to the torso. “Sigourney and I have a long creative history, dating back to 1985 when we made _Aliens_,” Cameron said in a statement. “We’re good friends who’ve always worked well together, so it just feels right that she’s coming back for the _Avatar_ sequels.” She’ll be joined in the sequels by a few of her original co-stars: Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana — the U.S. Marine and the bright blue alien he falls for — and Stephen Lang, who we can presume will also be filling a new role, since his character met an untimely end in the first film as well. Other than [a tepidly received vampire movie](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vamps%5F2011/ "undefined") in 2012, Weaver has recently been keeping a relatively low profile in Hollywood, although she did earn some acclaim for her role as Elaine Barrish, the First Lady turned presidential candidate turned Secretary of State (i.e. [a pretty shameless Hillary Clinton proxy](http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx%5Ffactor/2012/07/20/political%5Fanimals%5Fand%5Fhillary%5Fclinton%5Fwhy%5Fdid%5Fthe%5Fshow%5Fmake%5Fthe%5Fsecretary%5Fof%5Fstate%5Fso%5Fhot%5F.html "undefined")) in the miniseries _Political Animals_ two summers ago. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2851293/sigourney-weaver-james-cameron-avatar-sequels/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2851293/sigourney-weaver-james-cameron-avatar-sequels/"},"headline":"Sigourney Weaver Signs On to Avatar Sequels (There's Gonna Be Three)","datePublished":"2014-06-10T07:21:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:19:01.538Z","description":"But didn't her character die in the first one? 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