‘Aquaman 2’ Director Teases the Movie’s Plot and Tone

While some DC fans have already given up on DC Extended Universe, which is counting down its last months of existence, the last three DCEU movies that are left to be released are still important for the start of James Gunn’s era at DC, commonly known as DCU. This month we’ll watch ‘The Flash,’ which is expected to be a big-screen spectacle and the breaking point between DCEU and DCU, but the upcoming ‘Aquaman’ installment is also very anticipated, and not only because it’s the last DCEU movie.

The original ‘Aquaman’ movie was released in 2018, back when all DC fans were still recovering from a major disappointment that the theatrical cut of ‘Justice League’ brought them a year earlier. Jason Momoa’s performance in Joss Whedon’s ‘Justice League’ was one of the few things that were praised in that movie, and therefore his solo movie was widely anticipated, which later resulted in global commercial success, with $1.149 billion grossed worldwide. With such huge success, it didn’t take long for the studio to announce a sequel, with James Wan back in the director’s chair.

James Wan opens up about the plot of ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’

‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ is still half a year away, but even though the movie was already promoted at CinemaCon last April, we still don’t have any posters, footage, or any other kind of promotional material. The director James Was has recently spoken with The Hollywood Reporter about adjusting the movie to DC Studios’ current plan, but he also offered some teases about the movie’s plot.

Wan revealed that fans should expect quite a different, a bit more serious movie. One of the movie’s plot points will be climate change, which actually suits this kind of movie really well, and it will be interesting to see Arthur Curry, the king of Atlantis who was born in the world above the sea, dealing with that kind of situation. One thing that’s for sure, we can once again expect a visually impressive CGI-fest.

“I think people are going to be excited to see that this movie is quite different from the first movie in terms of tone. It’s a little bit more serious, and we’re dealing with issues like climate change. We’re not afraid to lean into that in a big way because the ‘Aquaman’ comic book, even way back when has always been environmentally conscious. He’s always been someone who’s fought to keep the ocean clean, and it feels more relevant in the world that we’re living in today. So this movie has something to talk about, but it’s still a fun action-fantasy movie.”

James Wan of The Hollywood Reporter

It’s kind of crazy to think that the original ‘Aquaman’ was released only five years ago. Since then, many things were changed in DC; many movies have been released, some with more and some with less success; Zack Snyder managed to release his original cut of ‘Justice League’; ‘Batgirl’ and ‘Wonder Woman 3’ were canceled, and Henry Cavill said farewell to the role of Superman only a few weeks after his return was announced in the post-credit-scene of ‘Black Adam.’

Realizing that DCEU can’t find the right course in its current Frankenstein state, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav decided to pull the plug and appoint the filmmaker James Gunn and the producer Peter Safran as new CEOs of DC Studios with a special task: to plan a whole new cinematic universe that’ll run for at least a decade, and it’s unknown if Jason Momoa’s Aquaman has the future after the release of the sequel this year. The original ‘Aquaman’ movie is still the highest-grossing DC movie ever made, and it will be challenging for the sequel to repeat that success.

‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ will see the return of Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Temuera Morrison, and Nicole Kidman, all reprising their respective roles from the original movie. Directed by James Wan, the movie is set to be released on December 20, 2023.

Are you looking forward to ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’? Let us know in the comments.

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