"After Way of Water came out, I started to reevaluate and change things a little bit to answer kind of what the audience was responding to," Cameron told . "Who are they interested in? What parts of it are they interested in? I even wrote some new scenes, and we went back, and we redid some stuff."
"It didn't exist in Fire and Ash," Cameron told in October 2025. "And I went, 'Oh, he's got to go get the bird.' Come on! I was saving it for a later film. I was like, 'F*ck that! He should get the bird. Get the Toruk.' There's something in Jake's destiny that requires it, right? So I just re-wrote it, and we went back and we shot two or three scenes around that concept, and I threw some stuff out and stuck that in."
James Cameron filmed The Way of Water, Fire and Ash, and parts of Avatar 4 back-to-back to prevent actor aging and allow rapid releases. The strategy ensured consistent casting and quicker release scheduling. The back-to-back approach limited the ability to adjust later films based on audience reaction, creating creative trade-offs. After The Way of Water's release, Cameron reevaluated Fire and Ash, wrote new scenes, and performed reshoots. Changes shifted plot emphasis toward creatures such as Payakan and introduced the Toruk. Large-scale simultaneous production required detailed planning but still allowed targeted rewrites to align sequels with audience response.
Read at Inverse
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