Avatar: The Way Of Water’s Edie Falco thought Avatar sequel bombed years ago

Despite a 13-year gap between movies, a changing blockbuster landscape, and a global pandemic, Avatar: The Way Of Water somehow crossed the finish line and hit theaters last week. Unsurprisingly, the movie is making beaucoup bucks. We’re talking boffo B.O., a whole pile of stinking cheddar. Actually, it did come as a surprise to one of the film’s only human characters and most recognizable stars, Edie Falco.

As we all know by now, Falco plays the great General Ardmore, known for her camouflage cap and penchant for drinking coffee using the arm of her exoskeleton. It’s great. But for all she knew, the movie bombed some time ago. Appearing on The View, Falco explains that she shot this movie so long ago that she assumed things didn’t go so well for the sequel to the biggest film ever made.

“The second Avatar, I shot four years ago,” she said. “I’ve been busy and doing stuff. Somebody mentioned Avatar, and I thought, ‘Oh, I guess it came out and it didn’t do very well because I didn’t hear anything about it.’ It happens! Someone recently said, ‘Avatar is coming out,’ and I said, ‘Oh, it hasn’t come out yet?’ I will never work again because I said that.”

Falco might have been sharing some wishful thinking because we’re sure that General Ardmore will appear in the next seven Avatar movies. Maybe there’s still time to give her the role she actually wanted, the one where she is tall and blue. “I wanted to be blue!” she said. “I was excited I’d be blue and very tall. I didn’t get either of those things.”

Don’t despair, Ms. Falco. Plenty of human actors in the first Avatar found themselves blue and tall by the end of the second. Could General Ardmore make fans and Falco’s dreams come true by being blue and tall in the next Avatar? We’ll find out when Avatar 3 comes out nine years from now.

[via Variety]