Though Wonder Woman dragged the DCEU to dizzying new heights last summer, Warner’s fledgling superhero franchise plumbed new depths with Justice League, the Zack Snyder-directed epic that ultimately failed to become more than the sum of its metahuman parts.
A $657 million haul simply wasn’t enough for Justice League to turn a profit – for the record, Avengers: Infinity War notched $630 million in its first weekend – which only places yet more pressure on the burly shoulders of Aquaman.
Slated for a primetime release this Christmas, James Wan’s standalone pic has been described as a great many things since it entered production last year. But if there’s one potential issue that has left DC fans sweating, it’s how Aquaman will be able to set itself apart from the failure of Justice League.
Thankfully, lead star Jason Momoa was on-hand to answer that very question during a recent interview with MTV News (h/t ComicBook.com), where he stated:
Justice League was like college. I’m not really sure what Aquaman was, it’s just all on my shoulders. I had a great time. I think in Justice League, you had five other characters around you suffering equally the same, so it was kind of fun to endure that. And then you know got me ready to do my solo movie which was challenging and tough and hard and super satisfying.
On the other end of the megaphone, James Wan cherry-picked some of the old-school Spielberg adventures as his biggest inspirations for 2018’s Aquaman movie.
What inspired me were all the older, classic action-adventure films that [Steven] Spielberg used to do, actually. And I kind of try to draw from that mentality, the idea of ‘awe’ and ‘wonderment’ that we used to see in those kind of films,” said Wan. “And I really wanted this movie to have that kind of magic heart, that wish fulfillment that we all have. What if we have the ability to just swim anywhere, right? Just hang out on a desert island in the middle of nowhere and just chill. And so I try to capture some of that spirit.
Said to be inspired by Indiana Jones and Star Wars, among other film classics, Aquaman is due to make land on December 21st. And only then will we be able to decide if Momoa and Wan have delivered the goods.