{"id":643340,"date":"2025-12-20T01:49:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T01:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/643340\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T01:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T01:49:16","slug":"fire-and-ash-after-audiences-saw-way-of-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/643340\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire and Ash\u2019 After Audiences Saw \u2018Way of Water\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAfter [Avatar: The] Way of Water<\/a> came out, I started to reevaluate and change things a little bit to answer kind of what the audience was responding to,\u201d James Cameron told io9 recently<\/a>. \u2018Who are they interested in? What parts of it are they interested in?<\/a> I even wrote some new scenes, and we went back, and we redid some stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameron said that to us a few weeks ago talking<\/a> about Avatar: Fire and Ash, which is now in theaters. It was an intriguing tidbit that was missing one key piece of information. What, specifically, did he change after he saw the audience reactions to The Way of Water?<\/p>\n

Well, in a new interview with the Wrap<\/a>, Cameron did answer that question. And our speculation was right on the money for one of the things. He added more of the space whale Payakan because audiences loved him so much. \u201cThere was such a strong emotional response to Payakan as a character that I had to build up his part in movie three,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cIf any breakout star emerges from a movie, you\u2019d build up that part in the subsequent film.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond beefing up Payakan, Cameron also changed a key moment between Jake Sully and his new water tribe, the Metkayina.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the original script, he asked the question [whether or not they want to use guns] three times, [and] they finally answer in the affirmative, because they\u2019ve got to defend the Tulkun,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cAnd I thought it was important to say, \u2018All right, you could be a pacifist, but at some point, there are things that are worth fighting for.’\u201d<\/p>\n

But that notion changed after the film was released, partially because of the Uvalde school shooting in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not want to glorify or fetishize the assault weapon,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cNow I\u2019m a little bit trapped, because I got a character who defines himself as a Marine. And the Marine\u2019s ethos is a Marine and his rifle are the most powerful weapon in the world. That\u2019s how they think. And so I thought, \u2018All right, I\u2019m going to keep it singular to Jake and his way of doing things, but I\u2019m not going to let him contaminate the Na\u2019vi way, and their value system.\u2019 These are things that were fluid going along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because Jake wasn\u2019t arming the Metkayina, though, Cameron also shifted the expected reunion between Jake and Toruk, the huge, dragon-like creature he befriends in the first film. That was going to come in a later movie, but Cameron moved it up to give the Na\u2019vi added firepower against the humans. \u201cThat was an adjustment on the fly,\u201d Cameron said.<\/p>\n

Avatar: Fire and Ash is now in theaters. Check back Monday, December 22, for our full, spoiler-filled breakdown.<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAfter [Avatar: The] Way of Water came out, I started to reevaluate and change things a little bit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[89660,193387,77,65359,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-643340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","9":"tag-avatar-the-way-of-water","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-james-cameron","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115749386295714488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}