There may come a time in an actor’s career when James Cameron’s Avatar sequels arrive to take them into the computer-generated abyss. The actor shall look into that abyss and whisper, “Draw me like one of your blue girls.” And James Cameron will reply, “Okay, but that’s not the role I had in mind for you.” That time is now. The actor is Jemaine Clement. And according to Variety, Clement will not be playing a kooky blue alien creature from a rainforest planet suspiciously similar to Fern Gully, but a “marine biologist” because, lest you’ve forgotten (how could you?!), Cameron’s Avatar sequels now involve ocean aliens, or something. Basically, James Cameron had to revolutionize water CGI the same way he revolutionized icebergs and T-1000s. A true artist, that man.
It’s unclear exactly how many sequels Clement will appear in; as the saying (and technology) goes, “You’ve been in one Avatar movie, you’ve been in ’em all.” No, really—you probably go to set for one day, James Cameron zaps you with a digital body scanner, records your recital of select words from the dictionary, and bam. You’re a franchise super-star. Clement, who recently put in an appearance on FX’s What We Do In The Shadows (which he also produces), is said to be playing the role of Dr. Ian Garvin—a character who is probably quite eccentric and wears glasses. We’ll have to wait until 2021 to find out, as it was recently revealed that Disney delayed the release of the frequently-delayed Avatar 2.