Wondering what becomes of a key villain after the events of Avatar: Fire and Ash? Well, the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora game just confirmed it for us.
The third chapter in James Cameron’s box office phenomenon is now upon us, as the Avatar series continues to peel back the layers of life on Pandora. While it may not be the defining entry, it’s still a visual spectacle without compare, though the films are just one part of the bigger picture.
From theme parks to video games, the story continues outside of Cameron’s own creations. While we wait for the seemingly inevitable Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 to enter production, as they respectively target 2029 and 2031 release dates, we do have some fresh intel coming from these transmedia efforts.
In particular, 2023’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora game from Ubisoft, creators of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, just confirmed a detail with major ramifications for the next films. Be warned, though, crucial spoilers to follow. If you haven’t yet seen Avatar: Fire and Ash, or played Frontiers of Pandora yourself, stop reading if you wish to experience them the way they were intended.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora DLC confirms fate of key villain
In the climactic moments of Fire and Ash, Colonel Miles Quaritch and Jake Sully get into another round of fisticuffs. Before long, we see a wounded Quaritch jump off their floating rock and disappear into a magnetic flux.
The film leaves things a bit ambiguous. Did Quaritch die from the fall, or did he manage to soften the impact on the way down and make it out alive? In Hollywood, no one is truly dead unless you see it on camera. Not to mention, Quaritch has shown a penchant for surviving deadly scenarios, even when you least expect it.
As such, you walk out of the cinema assuming Stephen Lang will be reprising his role in the next film. He simply must return for Avatar 4, and possibly even Avatar 5, to give his character and his feud with the Sullys proper closure.
We even heard from Lang himself, who said, “You don’t see him die.”
Well, it’s now been explicitly confirmed. Quaritch indeed survived the fall at the end of Fire and Ash, as revealed in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Although the game first released on December 7, 2023, Ubisoft has continued supporting Frontiers of Pandora with new content and updates ever since. Two years later, the game got its biggest update yet, which was followed closely by new story content.
In the ‘From the Ashes’ add-on, we experience a few hours of Pandora after the events of Fire and Ash. This slice takes place a few weeks after the latest film.
While the narrative itself takes place elsewhere and focuses on different characters, it nonetheless reflects what happened in the third movie. But not until the game’s credits did we get a major revelation.
Quaritch himself comes over the radio during the credits. Speaking to Major Bukowski, a character from the game, he mentions how a number of “Varang’s heavy hitters” have been taken out.
“Things are far from optimal all round,” Quaritch adds. He then commands the game character to return to him in order to “regroup and reassess.”
Given this all takes place after the events of Fire and Ash, the game therefore confirms that Quaritch survives. He appears to be licking his wounds following the latest defeat, but he’s clearly still aligned with Varang and her legion of followers.
What comes next is anyone’s guess for now, and we likely won’t see anything further from Quaritch until Avatar 4 hits the big screen in 2029, assuming no delays.
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