Avatar 2’s Aquatic Creatures Include Tulkuns, Skimwings, And The llu – Exclusive

When Avatar arrived way back in 2009, viewers were swallowed whole by James Cameron’s rich, detailed vision of Pandora – a bioluminescent planet teeming with all kinds of glowing flora and fauna. Now, with the long-awaited arrival of Avatar: The Way Of Water not too far off, the menagerie he previously established is set to grow even larger with all kinds of new aquatic beasts, as Jake, Neytiri and their family flock to the seas of their big, blue planet. As with the creatures of the first film – from the great striped direhorses, to the dragon-like banshees – the new batch will be recognisable to audiences from their Earthly equivalents, but with a particular Pandoran twist.

As seen in The Way Of Water’s dramatic first teaser, one such delight is an epic whale-like creature, the tulkun. “The idea was to create a creature that was on the scale of Pandora,” producer Jon Landau tells Empire in the upcoming The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power issue. “A tulkun is, like, 300 feet long. They are a sentient species and as intelligent in their own way as the Na’vi are in theirs.” Also glimpsed in the trailer is the skimwing, seen swimming into battle in the teaser’s final moments. As Landau explains, it’s “like a giant flying fish but keeps its trail in the water – its tail is its propulsion. The Metkayina [water tribe] and all the reef people use them as their military mounts when they’re going into combat. They can go 60 miles per hour for endless periods of time.”

Plus, there’s a creature that some fans might have already experienced – the ilu, seen on the Flight Of Passage ride at Walt Disney World’s Pandora: World Of Avatar. “The ilu is the water equivalent of a direhorse,” says Landau. “They are more playful than skimwings.” For an early peek, book your flight to Orlando – otherwise, you’ll see them all on Pandora in a matter of months.

Read Empire’s full Avatar: The Way Of Water story in the upcoming Rings Of Power issue – on sale Thursday 9 June, and available to pre-order online here. Avatar: The Way Of Water comes to UK cinemas from 16 December.