Ahead of the official trailer launch for James Wan’s “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” on Thursday, Wan himself has spoken with Entertainment Weekly and tried to clear up some of the rumors circulating regarding the DC Comics-inspired sequel to the billion dollar hit.
Much of the discussion has swirled around the film’s post-production phase with rumors of at least three rounds of reshoots as the film, much like “The Flash” before it, became mired in the executive overhaul shake-up at DC Studios. Wan says:
“The tricky thing early on was not knowing whether ‘Aquaman’ would come out first or come out after [‘The Flash’]. So, we just had to be prepared. At the end of the day, the best thing I would say about this movie is that it is not connected in any way to any of those films. That’s the bottom line.”
Further reports suggested Batman actors such as Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton were brought in for reshoots, but it’s not clear if any Batman cameo is still in the movie. Wan won’t give that answer away, saying: “That’s a ‘no comment,’ right now” and advising people to wait for the film.
Asked if Gunn has ‘weighed in’ on the film from his position as the new co-chief of DC Studios, Wan says: “I’ve known James since way back, right? We’re horror guys, and so I’m definitely open to ideas. But, at the end of the day, this is my movie.”
More importantly, he insists the reshoots the film underwent were no different to any of his other major studio films:
“We have big actors in this movie, and everyone’s schedule is really hard. So, we had to break up our shooting schedule into sections. We’ll shoot a bit here now, because this actor’s available, and then we’ll do another shoot now, because this guy’s available. People are like, ‘Oh, they’re doing a whole bunch of different shoots!’ No. If we actually combined them all together, it’s actually not that many number of days at all.”
Then there’s the Amber Heard complication. Heart claimed in her 2022 defamation trial that Warners “didn’t want to include me” in the “Aquaman” sequel with her role “pared down”. Wan says the sequel was never meant to focus on Mera and Aquaman like the first movie did:
“I always pitched this to everyone from the get-go. The first ‘Aquaman’ was Arthur and Mera’s journey. The second movie was always going to be Arthur and Orm. So, the first was a romance action-adventure movie, the second one is a bromance action-adventure movie. We’ll leave it at that.”
Finally, Wan confirms that the new film set ups “certain things in a good place” that one could “definitely draw upon in a third” should they want to. However there’s zero plans for a third film at this time.
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” opens in cinemas everywhere from December 20th.
Source: EW
