Will Arnie Be Avatar 2’s Villain?

There's a Colonel Quaritch-shaped vacancy in Avatar 2 and Latino Review's source thinks that the man that will be filling it is about 6' 2", cigar-chomping and made from purest Austrian oak. According to the scuttlebutt, James Cameron is planning to reunite with Arnold Schwarzenegger, luring him to Pandora with a juicy role, not as the first of Mother Eywa's Schwarzena'vi, but the sequel's human villain.

If it's true, and Latino Review is usually reliable on such matters, it makes a whole lot of sense. Schwarzenegger's film career could use a bump after some recent box-office shockers and the prospect of another collaboration between the **Terminator **and True Lies pairing is enough to get the juices flowing. Besides, who doesn't want to see Dutch back in the jungle?

Avatar 2, penned by War Of The Worlds' Josh Friedman, is scheduled for production next year, so expect confirmation one way or the other in the near future. The sequel will hit screens in December 2016, to be followed a year later by a third instalment and a fourth in 2018.

Without claiming the Na'vi gift of divination, one of** Empire**'s own pitched this earlier in the summer, so credit where it's due. Unless it doesn't happen, of course, in which case we'll distance ourselves from this like a banshee spotting a Great Leonopteryx.