Difficult as it is to believe, we will likely see the first Avatar sequel next December. After being pushed back numerous times, the movies have actually started filming and it looks like Avatar 2 is on track to be released in slightly under two years. And when you’re confident in your timeline, you can start to announce new cast. The Avatar Twitter account has announced that Edie Falco is on board to play General Ardmore.

There are no details on the character beyond “the Commander in charge of the RDA's interests”, but as /Film points out, the RDA sounds like a fairly villainous organization:

The RDA is the Resources Development Administration, “the largest single non-governmental organization in human space. Its power is such that it outmatches most of Earth governments in wealth, political influence, and military capability. The RDA has monopoly rights to all products shipped, derived, or developed from Pandora and any other off-Earth location. These rights were granted to the RDA in perpetuity by the Interplanetary Commerce Administration (ICA), with the stipulation that they abide by a treaty that prohibits weapons of mass destruction and limits military power in space.”

So it’s the big corporation that can’t be reined in by any force accountable to a democracy. In the first Avatar, the villain was Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang, who is returning for the sequels despite his character apparently dying), who was the head of DRA’s private security force. Falco’s character sounds in line with Quaritch, but it remains to be seen what her arc will be.

There are plenty of other questions swirling around these sequels, but it seems like the movies are finally on the way, so we should be getting more details as we get closer to Avatar 2’s release date, December 18, 2020. The film also stars Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, CCH Pounder, Kate Winslet and Oona Chaplin.