Avatar 3 Star Sparked One Game-Changing Twist in Fire & Ash's Final Battle

Avatar 3 did not cross the finish line looking exactly like James Cameron first planned. He went back into the cut, realized something near the end wasn’t landing, and made a pretty big swing: he brought back Toruk Makto. Yes, the giant sky dragon-bird from the first movie. And no, it wasn’t in The Way of Water at all. The kicker? Zoe Saldana helped nudge the change that turned the finale into a proper crowd-pleaser.

So, what actually changed?

• The final battle in Avatar: Fire and Ash now includes Jake Sully returning as Toruk Makto, a direct echo of the original Avatar’s climax.
• Cameron told Variety he rewatched an early cut and felt the storytelling was a little off heading into the ending. The missing piece: Toruk, the massive Leonopteryx Jake rode the first time around.
• Fans had asked for years why Jake never went back to Toruk. Cameron had actually planned to save that callback for a later sequel, but changed course and worked it into Avatar 3.
• That meant rewrites, new scenes, and cutting other material to make the revised arc fit.
• The switch picked up real momentum after a character note from Zoe Saldana: Neytiri didn’t have enough agency, and Jake was making too many calls on his own.
• Cameron adjusted the dynamic so Neytiri pushes Jake to act for their people. Jake’s return to Toruk Makto becomes a conscious decision they arrive at together, not a last-minute surprise. That framing came through as Cameron later clarified, with Slash Film highlighting the shift.
• The result: a Finale That Means Something, not just a splashy rerun. It mirrors the first film in a deliberate way, adds weight to the battle, and the cast reportedly loved how it played. Cameron says the change works beautifully.

The quick backstory (and the nerdy process stuff)

Cameron rarely second-guesses himself, but during that early rewatch of Fire and Ash he felt the approach into the climax wasn’t quite clicking. Toruk’s absence stuck out. He originally wanted to hold that card for later, which is why Toruk doesn’t show up at all in The Way of Water. But after revisiting the script, he decided the story needed the callback now, not in a future sequel.

"Our Toruk is back [in Fire and Ash], right?"

Bringing Toruk back wasn’t just fan service. Once Saldana flagged Neytiri’s sidelining, Cameron rebalanced the whole ending so it’s a shared choice: Neytiri motivates, Jake acts, and together they invoke the legend. It plays as a partner moment instead of a solo hero twist.

When you can see it

Avatar: Fire and Ash hit theaters on December 19, 2025.

Context credit where it’s due: Cameron discussed the shift with Variety, the Neytiri note was emphasized in Slash Film’s coverage, and the news also ran through SuperHeroHype (via Devanshi Basu) before popping up on ComingSoon.