Is John Mercer from Avatar: FoP in the movies?

There are a lot of characters in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and some seem a little more familiar than others. One who fits that description is the game’s main antagonist, John Mercer. So, was John Mercer also in the movies?

Is John Mercer in Avatar or Avatar: The Way of Water?

Despite John Mercer looking mighty familiar, he hasn’t previously made an appearance in Avatar or Avatar: The Way of Water. At first, I was convinced that I had seen him before. However, after scouring the characters of both films, I came to the conclusion that I conflated him with Giovanni Ribisi’s character from Avatar, Parker Selfridge.

Both characters are businessmen, they’re both in charge of their respective facilities, and they look similar, even down to both rolling up their button up shirt sleeves. Maybe it’s just really hot on Pandora, and they didn’t bring air conditioning all that way.

I was kind of disappointed for it not to be Giovanni Ribisi’s character but it makes sense given that Frontiers of Pandora takes place in the Western Frontier of the planet. An area that was designed for the game and that we’ve never seen before in the movies.

Still, I’d wager that the artists for John Mercer took at least a smidge of inspiration from Parker Selfridge in the first movie. And it’s possible that John Mercer will show up in future Avatar movies, as Frontiers of Pandora is confirmed to be canon. Maybe we can get an on-screen business showdown between him and Parker Selfridge.