Considering that “The Way of Water” brought back two characters that had died in “Avatar,” it makes sense as to why Rodriguez didn’t want to come back. Already having two characters return is a bit much, but at least both Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) have separate and exceptionally different mechanisms for coming back to the “Avatar” franchise. Firstly, Kiri is actually Dr. Grace Augustine from “Avatar,” who died from a gunshot wound before her consciousness could be transferred to her Avatar body. However, her connection to the Na’vi god allowed her to return as Kiri.
The resurrection of Quaritch is completely different than Kiri’s, and instead of an innate connection to the life energy of Pandora, Quaritch is brought back by humanity’s advanced technology and placed into an Avatar body. This happens to many of Quaritch’s fallen soldiers from “Avatar,” and they make up a squadron of hostile Na’vi. Where Trudy falls in these equations would have been somewhat of a stretch, since the human forces would be reluctant to spend their resources on resurrecting somebody whom they perceive as a traitor, while on the other end, Trudy never connected to Pandora’s global spirit, so it would make little sense for her to be reincarnated as a Na’vi.