As we continue our coverage for Avatar: The Way of Water, we thought we would cover what happened to Parker Selfridge, the head of the RDA on Pandora? You know, the guy who hated trees and just wanted to cut down the Pandoran rainforest because it would make him a ton of cash? Unfortunately, the guy rubbed Grace Augustine the wrong way and constantly baited her into an argument.
Grace is one of those people who was not afraid to call people out if they were up themselves. Selfridge is one of those people. So, what happened to him? We can answer that in long form and short form. Here’s the short answer. He was kicked off the planet by the Na’vi after Hometree was destroyed and the Tree of Souls was assaulted.
All Selfridge cares about is money, and he had constantly clashed with Grace over everything to do with the Omaticaya, even before Jake arrives on Pandora. In the comic story, Adapt or Die, we see the idea of the school, briefly mentioned in the first film, come up. Parker believes that the deaths of the Na’vi children who attend the school will be profitable for the RDA, which is to the disgust of Grace.
Behind The Scenes
The film depicts Selfridge as more or less the same. However, being kicked off Pandora isn’t going to stop him. He is due to return to the story in The Way of Water, but it’s unclear how given it takes up to six years to travel from Earth to Pandora.
It was announced while the film was in production that Giovanni Ribisi would return to the sequels. We know he filmed scenes because there is a behind-the-scenes photo of him with James Cameron and co-star Michelle Yeoh, who features in the film as Doctor Karina Mogue, a scientist of some description.
However, it is unclear whether Selfridge’s scenes will remain in the film. Also, it should be noted that Neytiri confronted him only to tell her and Jake that the human would someday return. Given the time jump between films, it looks like this will be his comeback. Given the BTS photo is with Michelle Yeoh, they likely share scenes. However, whether they will take place on Pandora or Earth is unknown.
