‘Aquaman 2’: James Wan Teases Potential Third Movie but Casts Doubt on Returning as Director

James Wan earned his recognition by directing known horror movies. His first notable work was 2004’s ‘Saw,’ a horror movie that spawned the entire franchise, for which the tenth installment will be released later this month. Wan also directed ‘Dead Silence,’ and the first two installments of ‘The Conjuring’ and ‘Insidious’ franchises. His first non-horror movie was 2015’s ‘Furious 7,’ which grossed over $1.5 billion. In 2018, he debuted in the superhero genre with ‘Aquaman,’ which grossed $1.148 billion and became the highest-grossing DC movie ever.

After five years of waiting, ‘Aquaman’ will finally get a sequel this December, and Wan returned to direct it. However, DC Studios is currently in a rough era since every DC movie released this year was a commercial failure. Since Wan’s ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ is set to close DCEU for good, the box-office predictions for the upcoming sequel do not look promising at all. Still, we can’t ignore the fact that we’re still talking about a sequel to the highest-grossing DC movie yet, and despite all the controversies and background issues, we are still anticipating to see what Wan prepared for us.

James Wan teases what the potential ‘Aquaman 3’ could be about, but he’s unsure if he’d direct it.

Since DCEU will be closed for good after the release of ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,’ it is highly unlikely that ‘Aquaman 3’ will happen, even if the upcoming second installment is commercially successful. It’s unknown if James Gunn has plans for Jason Momoa to play Arthur Curry in his DCU, but if ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ becomes a box-office success, there’s also a chance, in theory, that the threequel could be an Elseworlds project.

In a recent interview for Entertainment Weekly, the ‘Aquaman’ director spoke about Arthur Curry’s character journey and what we could expect from him if the threequel happens.

“What I like between this one and the first one is you really do see the growth of Arthur. He starts off as this kind of wanderer, and in the second one, he finally has more of a direction of what he wants to do with his life.

If and when there is a third one, that’s what it should be; it should be growing these characters because I think we’ve set up certain things in a good place in the second movie that you can definitely draw upon in a third. I don’t have any stories, but growing the characters is the biggest thing that I think the next Aquaman movie should be about.”

James Wan for Entertainment Weekly

When asked if he’d be up to return for the potential third movie, here’s what Wan had to say.

“Oh, buddy. I don’t know. This film has taken up so, so much of my life, so much of my time. All I can think about now is taking a long break.”

James Wan for Entertainment Weekly

Directed by James Wan and starring Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Dolph Lundgren, Randall Park, Temuera Morrison, and Nicole Kidman, ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ is set to be released on December 20, 2023.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you think ‘Aquaman 3’ has any chance of happening?

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