What It Was Like To Make Aquaman 2 As The DC Universe Got Rebooted - /Film

What It Was Like To Make Aquaman 2 As The DC Universe Got Rebooted - /Film,Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom straddles the old and new DC Universes, but director James Wan doesn't seem too concerned about it.

What It Was Like To Make Aquaman 2 As The DC Universe Got Rebooted – /Film

On November 1, 2022, James Gunn and Peter Safran had their first day on the job as the new co-chairmen and chief executive officers of DC Studios. The duo later announced a brand new slate of movies based on DC Comics characters as part of a reset of the DC Universe of films. There’s just one problem — “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” was still in production after an announced delay earlier that year, and the character was introduced in the previous DC Extended Universe of films. How does Aquaman fit into this new cinematic universe? Did the film suddenly have to change course to accommodate the changes Gunn/Safran wanted to make?

/Film’s own Jenna Busch-Henderson attended a trailer reveal event for “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” which featured a Q&A with director James Wan. Lest we forget, Wan is one of the only major figures allowed to do press in the lead-up to the film’s release, as members of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA remain on strike as a result of the AMPTP’s failure to negotiate a fair deal.

When asked if there was an added pressure of juggling the new and old DC Universes, Wan describes it as “living in a house that’s getting renovated.” Fortunately, he says that the “Aquaman” films are, by design, supposed to live in their own worlds that don’t rely on the larger DC Cinematic universe. This approach worked really well for the first film, so Wan says they’re taking a similar approach to the second.

Honestly, James Wan’s assurance that “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is doing its own thing is music to my ears.

Who lives in a lost kingdom under the sea?

Warner Bros.

No shade to the Snyderbros out there, but that sort of serious realism doesn’t fit with a character as, well, ridiculous as Aquaman … especially one played by Jason Momoa. And especially a version of Jason Momoa as Aquaman that rides a sea horse like a damn Pegasus. That isn’t to say these films should completely jump the shark (I refuse to apologize for that pun), but there’s a reason “Peacemaker” had an Aquaman cameo that led to 16 minutes of “Aquaman has sex with fish” jokes. See, “The Boys” isn’t the only show to joke about super-aquatic beastiality!

But it’s doubly exciting to hear these comments considering how many obstacles have been thrown at this film since the start of production.

“Making movies is tough enough, making a massive tentpole film is even harder. Throw on top of that a life-threatening pandemic just takes it to a whole different level,” Wan told Entertainment Weekly during a set visit. “But we’ve been shooting for a while now, and it’s been a pretty smooth process.” Those comments were made almost two years ago, and after months of VFX and an extensive editing process, we’re finally going to be able to see the fruits of everyone’s labor. “My goal was always: If we could spin off a Seven Kingdoms universe, that would be my ideal dream,” said Wan.

Whether or not we’ll see a third Aquaman movie will depend greatly on the performance of this sequel, and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” swims into theaters on December 20, 2023.