Update: In the meantime, it has been confirmed by Jon Landau that this creature is indeed a Tulkun. The flying fish crocodile-like creature is confirmed to be a “Skimwing” (or “tsurak” in Na’vi).
In this post I’ve explained why leading experts (:P) inside the fandom think that Lo’ak is touching a tulkun in the trailer for Avatar 2: The Way Of Water: Clearing Up The Confusion About The Children – Avatar 2: The Way Of Water – the 1st reason being, that media sources have been calling this creature a tulkun while they knew before everyone else that Kiri is Kiri, Lo’ak is Lo’ak and Ronal is Ronal:
Avatar 3 / 4 is likely going to be subtitled “The Tulkun Rider” and looks like Lo’ak is up for the task (2nd reason):
Not enough, yet? Well, here are more reasons why think this is a tulkun and not a nalutsa or akula:
The nalutsa is confirmed to be this very shark-like looking creature (3rd reason):
Which looks a lot like this guy in the trailer (overall body shape, back plating and fin shape):
And it looks like this guy in “The Flight Of Passage” inside “Disney’s Animal Kingdom: Pandora – The World Of Avatar”:
While the creature Lo’ak is interacting with is definitely more whale-like (4th reason). The tulkun below has a different mouth shape (5th reason), which also looks more like that of a whale from Earth:
The tulkun here seems to have two kuru (neural queue) which the nalutsa seems to be missing (6th reason). Also, the belly of the nalutsa is very smooth apparently, other than the tulkun’s (7th reason) – and comparing flippers, the nalutsa seems to be missing these circled claw (?) and ridges (8th reason):
Also, trying to compare sizes, we get our 9th reason:
The shape of the flippers is also very different (10th reason). And the 11th reason would be, that the akula is said to be an even larger evolutionary cousin of the nalutsa (in the book “The World Of Avatar: A Visual Exploration”), which means an akula most likely resembles a shark more than a whale, much like the nalutsa does.
So, ma frapo, this is 11 reasons why this big boy next to Lo’ak is most likely a tulkun! :D
