Anya Taylor-Joy said that her dream job would be to join the Avatar franchise, and after her other iconic sci-fi roles, James Cameron needs to find a character for her to play. Taylor-Joy has been promoting her latest movie, The Gorge, a sci-fi action thriller in which she and Miles Teller play two elite snipers who are ᴀssigned to guard a mysterious gorge without being told what’s lurking inside it. Sigourney Weaver also appears in The Gorge’s cast as the snipers’ elusive handler, Bartholomew, and she was very impressed by Taylor-Joy’s performance.
Weaver was so impressed by Taylor-Joy, in fact, that she wants her to join her in the sprawling ensemble of a different sci-fi property. Weaver is, of course, best known as the original star of the Alien franchise. Her turn as Ellen Ripley helped to blaze the trail for actors like Taylor-Joy, Jennifer Lawrence, and Lucy Liu to play badᴀss action heroes a few decades down the line. But it’s not the Alien saga that Weaver wants Taylor-Joy to appear in; she’s got her sights set on a different blockbuster sci-fi franchise.
Anya Taylor-Joy Confirmed Her Dream Role Would Be Joining The Avatar Franchise
“It Is Like My Dream To Be Na’vi”
While promoting The Gorge, Weaver pitched Taylor-Joy for an Avatar role. She said, “I hope Jim sees [it],” because she thinks he’ll appreciate Taylor-Joy’s character, Drasa. Weaver praised Cameron for being “ahead of his time” in creating strong female characters like Sarah Connor and Neytiri, as well as significantly deepening the emotionality of her Ripley character in Aliens. Cameron’s heroines are fierce and formidable, but they’re also vulnerable human beings, and Weaver believes that Drasa is “very much in that tradition.” Having admired Taylor-Joy since watching The Witch and The Queen’s Gambit, Weaver believes that there’s “nothing she can’t do.”
The Gorge is now streaming on Apple TV+.
During one of her own interviews to promote The Gorge, Taylor-Joy was asked to comment on Weaver’s Avatar pitch. She was ecstatic to get Weaver’s blessing and encouragement to join the Avatar franchise, because she’s a huge fan of Cameron’s dazzling sci-fi saga. She said, “It is like my dream to be Na’vi.” She mentioned that she once watched the first Avatar movie “eight times in a row” after getting home from a party. It could be kismet; Weaver gives Taylor-Joy her blessing to appear in an Avatar movie, and it turns out it’s one of her long-held ambitions.
Why Anya Taylor-Joy Would Be Perfect For The Avatar Franchise
She Always Grounds Far-Fetched Genre Stories In An Emotional Reality
Taylor-Joy would be a perfect casting choice for the Avatar universe. She has the sleek, slender, battle-ready look that defines the Na’vi, and she has the dramatic chops to give a deeply human performance behind a thick layer of blue CGI. Since her breakout role in The Witch, Taylor-Joy has accrued a versatile body of work. What ties all her performances together is that, no matter what genre she’s working in or how far-fetched the story is, she always grounds the character in an emotional reality.
In Split, she captured the terror of being kidnapped and the lasting trauma of abuse. In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, she captured the grief of losing a mother and the desire for revenge. In Last Night in Soho, she captured the devastating psychological toll of working in the unscrupulous entertainment industry. Whether she’s in a sci-fi movie or a horror movie or a big, bombastic action movie set on a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Taylor-Joy always brings real depth and emotion to her character, and that’s exactly what she would need to join the Avatar cast.
A Role In The Avatar Franchise Would Make Anya Taylor-Joy The Latest Queen Of Sci-Fi
She’s Already Been In Dune & Mad Max
If Taylor-Joy did join the Avatar franchise, then she would be the undeniable queen of sci-fi cinema. She’s already joined the Dune and Mad Max franchises, two of the most beloved sci-fi properties currently in circulation, so if she joins Avatar, she’ll complete the trifecta. In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Taylor-Joy inherited the тιтle role from Charlize Theron to fill in her thrilling backstory. While Furiosa was a box office disappointment, it was praised by critics and Mad Max fanatics alike as a worthy addition to Max’s story — and Taylor-Joy’s performance was front and center in those glowing reviews.
If Weaver can get Anya Taylor-Joy a role in the Avatar franchise, then she’ll pᴀss on the torch to a new queen of sci-fi.
In Dune: Part Two, Taylor-Joy made her debut as Alia Atreides, Paul’s unborn sister who communicated with her mother Jessica from inside the womb. She only appeared briefly in Paul’s visions, but she’s set up for a much larger role in the series’ future. Weaver is the former queen of sci-fi, having appeared in Alien, Avatar, and Galaxy Quest. If Weaver can get Anya Taylor-Joy a role in the Avatar franchise, then she’ll pᴀss on the torch to a new queen of sci-fi.
