Between the first Avatar film and the sequel, The Way of Water, we not only had a big time jump in real life but in the universe, too. Jake Sully was a family man, with his own children and had become a leader of his tribe during their time of peace.
When the humans returned, though, Sully had to fight once more. However, as you may have noticed in Avatar: The Way of Water, he went into battle without his usual mount, the Toruk AKA the massive red bird lizard Sully rides into battle at the end of Avatar.
That beast is going to be back in the third film, thanks to some last-minute reshoots by Cameron. Speaking to Variety, he explained how the film changed to bring the Toruk back. "I don't really second guess my creative impulses. Unless, and this happened a little bit on "Fire and Ash," I'm looking at it going, you know, I'm not that much of a genius screenwriter. There's something a little off here in the storytelling. And so, our Toruk is back," he said.
"You know, the big bird that Jake rides [in the climax of the first Avatar]. I've always been waiting for the question, "Why doesn't he just go get the big red bird and kill everybody like he used to do?" Because that doesn't exist in The Way of Water at all... It didn't exist in Fire and Ash. 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, 'Fuck that! He should get the bird. Get the Toruk.'"
Cameron also confirmed that the film will run for about three hours. "Big surprise! But it works beautifully, and the actors were super-excited about that idea. It's like, oh, okay, that feels right, you know?" he said.