Given the success of the Avatar movies, you'd expect pretty much every actor out there to be fighting for a recurring role in the franchise.
Michelle Rodriguez, however, is not one of those actors.
Of course, you probably know that Rodriguez did have the honour of appearing in the original Avatar in 2009, when she took on the role of Trudy Chacón: a pilot who works for the Avatar Program, but who is sympathetic to the Na’vi.
However, when The Way Of The Water dropped in cinemas this year, Rodriguez was nowhere to be seen.
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Fans of the original film will of course know that this is probably because her character died heroically, and therefore would have had to literally come back from the dead to appear again.
It's a little ridiculous, but apparently not a deal breaker for director James Cameron.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Rodriguez explained that Cameron had actually asked her to return to the franchise when it came time to work on the sequels.
“Dude, when I saw Jim [Cameron] recently, he was like, ‘I was thinking, What if Michelle came back?' A lot of the other characters came back [in ‘The Way of Water’]," she recalled.
It's a very good offer, but Rodriguez didn't want to spoil the legacy her character had left behind with her death in the original movie.
Responding to Cameron, Rodriguez said: "I was like, ‘You can’t do that—I died as a martyr.'”
Cameron himself has been open about his regret of killing off Trudy, with his mistake becoming clear soon after the first film was released.
Speaking in 2013, an entire decade before the first sequel hit cinemas, Cameron said: "I wrote this character with her in mind, and I was really over the moon when she jumped on board. And I don’t know anybody who came out of the shoot without an abiding affection for who she is as a person.
"The character of Trudy has this amazing integrity, and that’s who Michelle is. I mean, I’m kind of kicking myself today that I killed her off.”
Though some people might find Trudy's resurrection a little far-fetched, Rodriguez pointed out that a comeback wouldn't necessarily be a first for her.
“I came back in ‘Resident Evil,’ I wasn’t supposed to. I came back in ‘Machete,’ I wasn’t supposed to. I came back with ‘Letty,’ I wasn’t supposed to," she explained, adding: "We can’t do a fourth [time], that would be overkill!”
Topics: James Cameron, Film and TV, Celebrity
Emily Brown