“After [Avatar: The] 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,” James Cameron told io9 recently. ‘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.”
Cameron said that to us a few weeks ago talking 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?
Well, in a new interview with the Wrap, 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. “There was such a strong emotional response to Payakan as a character that I had to build up his part in movie three,” Cameron said. “If any breakout star emerges from a movie, you’d build up that part in the subsequent film.”
Beyond beefing up Payakan, Cameron also changed a key moment between Jake Sully and his new water tribe, the Metkayina.
“In 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’ve got to defend the Tulkun,” Cameron said. “And I thought it was important to say, ‘All right, you could be a pacifist, but at some point, there are things that are worth fighting for.’”
But that notion changed after the film was released, partially because of the Uvalde school shooting in 2022.
“I did not want to glorify or fetishize the assault weapon,” Cameron said. “Now I’m a little bit trapped, because I got a character who defines himself as a Marine. And the Marine’s ethos is a Marine and his rifle are the most powerful weapon in the world. That’s how they think. And so I thought, ‘All right, I’m going to keep it singular to Jake and his way of doing things, but I’m not going to let him contaminate the Na’vi way, and their value system.’ These are things that were fluid going along.”
Because Jake wasn’t 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’vi added firepower against the humans. “That was an adjustment on the fly,” Cameron said.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is now in theaters. Check back Monday, December 22, for our full, spoiler-filled breakdown.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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![‘House of the Dragon’ Season 3 Will Bring the Equivalent of Nuclear War to Westeros
We’re just a few weeks away from the return of House of the Dragon, and all signs point to the bloodiest, most destruction-heavy season yet. The marketing thus far has screamed “war” and “agony“; the show’s co-creator and showrunner, Ryan Condal, has promised “arguably the craziest episode of television ever” with the season-opening Battle of the Gullet. At the recent ATX TV Festival, he again emphasized how wild the Dance of the Dragons is going to get, going so far as to use nuclear war as a comparison. As reported by Deadline, Condal spoke about how many practical effects are involved in the first episode of season three, which will vividly bring the seafaring excitement to life. However, there’s another element to Westeros warfare of this period that goes well beyond ships firing on each other: those Targaryen dragons blazing at each other in the sky. “There is a lot of dragon action,” Condal teased. “There are new ones that we haven’t really spent any time with at all that you’ll be very excited to see, and some old favorites come back in and get lots of exciting screen time and action.”
When dragons are involved, that raises the stakes to a new level, which Condal used the language of nuclear war to describe: “mutually assured destruction.” It’s something we didn’t see in Game of Thrones, which did have some dragons in play, of course, but not on the level of the battle-ready beasts that populate House of the Dragon.
“I think the thing this show contends with that the original Game of Thrones did not contend with, at least until the very end, is this idea of there are nuclear weapons in play, and there are nuclear weapons in play on both sides,” he explained. “So really you have this classic Cold War standoff of mutually assured destruction. Of course, the characters in the show would not have those words, but we as a modern audience that can see that [do].” In season two, as the Dance of the Dragons was getting underway, “Nobody wants to make the big move that is going to break down the wrath of [the dragon] Vhagar or Daemon, because they realize that if it goes too far, you could just have ash left over,” Condal said. “But, of course, that builds and builds and builds, and at some point the cork comes off the champagne bottle, and that’s where we begin here in season three.”
Spoiler alert: Westeros itself does survive, since it’s still around for Game of Thrones several generations later. But we can assume a lot of castles and landscape and people and dragons won’t be making it through this clash of Targaryens. House of the Dragon season three begins June 21 on HBO. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #House #Dragon #Season #Bring #Equivalent #Nuclear #War #WesterosGame of Thrones,HBO,House of the Dragon ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 3 Will Bring the Equivalent of Nuclear War to Westeros
We’re just a few weeks away from the return of House of the Dragon, and all signs point to the bloodiest, most destruction-heavy season yet. The marketing thus far has screamed “war” and “agony“; the show’s co-creator and showrunner, Ryan Condal, has promised “arguably the craziest episode of television ever” with the season-opening Battle of the Gullet. At the recent ATX TV Festival, he again emphasized how wild the Dance of the Dragons is going to get, going so far as to use nuclear war as a comparison. As reported by Deadline, Condal spoke about how many practical effects are involved in the first episode of season three, which will vividly bring the seafaring excitement to life. However, there’s another element to Westeros warfare of this period that goes well beyond ships firing on each other: those Targaryen dragons blazing at each other in the sky. “There is a lot of dragon action,” Condal teased. “There are new ones that we haven’t really spent any time with at all that you’ll be very excited to see, and some old favorites come back in and get lots of exciting screen time and action.”
When dragons are involved, that raises the stakes to a new level, which Condal used the language of nuclear war to describe: “mutually assured destruction.” It’s something we didn’t see in Game of Thrones, which did have some dragons in play, of course, but not on the level of the battle-ready beasts that populate House of the Dragon.
“I think the thing this show contends with that the original Game of Thrones did not contend with, at least until the very end, is this idea of there are nuclear weapons in play, and there are nuclear weapons in play on both sides,” he explained. “So really you have this classic Cold War standoff of mutually assured destruction. Of course, the characters in the show would not have those words, but we as a modern audience that can see that [do].” In season two, as the Dance of the Dragons was getting underway, “Nobody wants to make the big move that is going to break down the wrath of [the dragon] Vhagar or Daemon, because they realize that if it goes too far, you could just have ash left over,” Condal said. “But, of course, that builds and builds and builds, and at some point the cork comes off the champagne bottle, and that’s where we begin here in season three.”
Spoiler alert: Westeros itself does survive, since it’s still around for Game of Thrones several generations later. But we can assume a lot of castles and landscape and people and dragons won’t be making it through this clash of Targaryens. House of the Dragon season three begins June 21 on HBO. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #House #Dragon #Season #Bring #Equivalent #Nuclear #War #WesterosGame of Thrones,HBO,House of the Dragon](https://gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2026/05/house-of-the-dragon-battle-of-the-gullet-1280x853.jpg)
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