Josh Brolin recalls turning down a role in Avatar: The Way of Water, and he remembers hearing that James Cameron didn’t take kindly to the rejection. After Avatar became a smash hit in 2009, Cameron returned to the world of Pandora with a sequel in 2022, continuing the story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family. The Avatar: The Way of Water cast brings back a number of familiar faces and introduces many new characters, but Brolin was not among them, with the actor revealing back in 2017 that he declined an offer to appear in the sequel.

During a recent appearance on the In Depth with Graham Bensinger podcast, Brolin is asked about his experience of turning down a role in Avatar: The Way of Water. Though the actor admits that he doesn’t know Cameron very well and can’t be sure of his reaction, he does reveal that he heard that the director wasn’t pleased. As for why he turned down the film, Brolin doesn’t get specific but says it wasn’t because of Cameron’s involvement. Check out Brolin’s comment below:

“I heard he was angry. I understand it, because when you have something in your mind and you have a status and a power… you’re used to people feeling really grateful that you are offering it to them. I don’t know if that’s the case with him because I don’t know him well enough. But it was based on the [project]. It wasn’t based on him.”

What Brolin’s Casting Would Have Meant For Avatar 2

Who The Actor Could Have Played In The Way Of Water

It’s not clear what character Brolin was being eyed to play in Avatar: The Way of Water, or why he rejected the part. It’s possible that the character or the story in general weren’t interesting to him, or it’s possible that Brolin wasn’t keen on more performance capture acting after his role as Thanos. The roles that Brolin seems most likely to have been up for include Metkayina clan leader Tonowari, which went to Cliff Curtis, or more villainous parts like Mick Scoresby, a role that went to Brendan Cowell, or General Ardmore, which went to Edie Falco.

Even without Brolin, however, Cameron’s sequel went on to achieve great success. The Avatar: The Way of Water reviews were generally positive, and the film was a massive box office hit, grossing $2.320 billion worldwide to become the third highest-grossing movie of all time. It doesn’t sound as if Brolin regrets turning down the role in the franchise, but Matt Damon famously also turned down a role in the first Avatar, later revealing his regret that he missed out on a substantial payday.

The first Avatar currently ranks as the highest-grossing movie of all time with $2.923 billion.

Our Take On Brolin Turning Down An Avatar 2 Role

Brolin Is No Stranger To Epic Sci-Fi

Brolin, generally speaking, seems most interested in playing grounded roles in more human stories. One of his most iconic characters, for example, is Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men. There are some obvious exceptions, however, as he played Thanos across multiple MCU movies, and he also appeared as Gurney Halleck in Denis Villeneuve’s two Dune movies. For whatever reason, though, the character offered to him in the Avatar sequel just wasn’t what he was looking for at the time.

Even though it’s not clear who he would have been playing, Brolin ultimately would have been a great addition to Avatar: The Way of Water. The franchise may consist mostly of CGI characters, but the technology is so impressive that actors’ performances do shine through. Though there are three more Avatar movies on the way, it doesn’t sound like audiences should expect to see Brolin in any of them.