Michelle Rodriguez chooses not to return to Avatar because it’s overkill for her to return from the dead again

Michelle Rodriguez’s characters often refuse to stay dead. Because of this, she now refuses to come back to life. You gotta hand it to her, turning down an Avatar payday in favor of principle is pretty dignified. Variety recently reports on the Fast & Furious star as she encountered James Cameron and he pitches her an idea. What if her character in Avatar somehow returned in a future sequel? Rodriguez feels it would be overkill, because she’s already had three movie franchises that has brought her back from the dead.

Rodriguez played a human ally in the first Avatar in 2009. Her character, Trudy Chacón, was a pilot who aided the Na’vi in their defense against the human attack and would get slain during the battle. Cameron has stated before that one regret he has is killing off her character. “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].‘ I was like, ‘You can’t do that—I died as a martyr,’” Rodriguez said.

One of the big turning points in her career was when Vin Diesel had brought her back from the dead in the Fast & Furious franchise and she had become an integral character in the subsequent sequels. She also mentions, “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. We can’t do a fourth [time], that would be overkill!”

“I don’t understand, it’s so weird. I guess they don’t know what to do with the girl who doesn’t have a boyfriend. ‘She doesn’t have a boyfriend. Should we keep her alive, or kill her?’” Cameron had also brought back other characters who seemingly perished in the first Avatar into The Way of Water, including Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang. They would play newer versions of their former human characters. It’s probably not often nowadays people can tell Cameron “no” and he just accepts it.

Rodriguez is currently appearing in the new Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which could turn into another successful franchise for her, barring she doesn’t die in the one too. The buzz for Dungeons & Dragons is positive, and it currently holds a certified fresh 89% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 92% audience score.