James Cameron Changed ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ After Audiences Saw ‘Way of Water’

You, the audience, may have had an impact on Avatar: Fire and Ash. The third film in James Cameron’s Avatar franchise opens December 19, and though it was largely filmed at the same time as 2022’s The Way of Water, Cameron told io9 that after fans saw that film, he went back and tweaked its follow-up.

“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 us in Los Angeles last week. ‘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 was very fluid, very creative, and the actors were always down. It didn’t matter. I’d call them up and say, ‘Hey, I got an idea for a scene.’ They’d just come back, and they could drop back into character, and we could drop back into that world so easily, and everybody just loved it. They’d be off doing other films, and they’d come back and say, ‘We like this.’ It was always home base for them in a strange way.â€

Cameron didn’t reveal what specifically he added or changed, but we can surely begin to think about it. For example, he never could have predicted that audiences would’ve fallen so hard for Payakan, the rogue Tulkun who bonds with Lo’ak and helps the Metkayina defeat the RDA. There’s a lot of Payakan in Fire and Ash, so maybe that’s it.

Or, maybe it’s some of the mystery surrounding Kiri, the young Sully child played by Sigourney Weaver. Kiri is a key character in The Way of Water, and she definitely became a fan favorite after the film’s release. She’s even more crucial this time around, with plenty of answers forthcoming, so maybe that got beefed up a bit.

One thing it isn’t is anything with Spider, the human character played by Jack Champion. Spider is one of the most important characters in Fire and Ash, but Champion looks completely different than he did almost 10 years ago when he filmed his scenes. It would be damned near impossible for Cameron to shoot new scenes with Champion to match those. But if anyone could do it, it would be Cameron.

Once Fire and Ash hits theaters, we’ll surely find out what specifically was added or changed. For now, what would you want to see more of in the film? Let us know below.

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