Avatar Director Adds Iconic Creature to Upcoming Sequel

As of October 3rd, 2025, director James Cameron has made a surprising revelation about the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film in his highly anticipated sci-fi series. Cameron disclosed that he has included a scene in the new movie featuring the return of the Toruk, a large, powerful bird that the protagonist Jake rode in the climactic battle of the first Avatar film.

The director had originally planned to save the Toruk's reappearance for a later installment in the franchise, which is expected to continue until Avatar 5 in 2031. However, after reviewing the script for Fire and Ash, Cameron felt that the story required the Toruk's presence. "I was like, 'Fuck that! He should get the bird. Get the Toruk,'" the director explained. "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."

The decision to bring back the iconic Toruk has been met with excitement from the film's cast. Cameron noted that the actors were "super-excited about that idea" and felt it "feels right" for the narrative. While the addition of the Toruk has resulted in a longer runtime, with the film now clocking in at three hours, the director believes it will enhance the overall experience for audiences.

In the meantime, Cameron is also working on an adaptation of Charles R. Pellegrino's book Ghosts of Hiroshima, which he describes as potentially "the most challenging film I ever make." The director is grappling with how to balance the film's harrowing subject matter with a sense of "poetry, beauty, or spiritual epiphany."

Avatar: Fire and Ash is set to release on December 19th, 2025, and is expected to continue the epic story of the Na'vi people and their struggle to protect their home on the moon Pandora from human exploitation.