Nobody could have predicted that Aquaman would go on to earn over $1.1 billion at the box office to become the highest-grossing DC Comics adaptation ever made, but James Wan and Jason Momoa’s descent to the watery bowels of Atlantis proved to be a worldwide sensation.
It’s entirely up for debate if the film would have flown anywhere near as high with anybody else behind the camera, but one of the early contenders for the gig admits it definitely wouldn’t have happened had they ended up landing the job.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Jeff Nichols came clean on what he had in store for Aquaman during his talks with Warner Bros., and he was self-effacing enough to claim that there was no chance his vision would have become a success on anything approaching the same level as Wan’s blockbuster.
“I still have scenes from in my head that would’ve been good. They would’ve been quite different from the film that was made. It wasn’t ever feasible…I liked the older Aquaman, like when he had a harpoon for a hand. He was a fallen king and his son had died. He was in mourning. Obviously from this brief pitch you can see it would’ve sold hundreds of dollars worth of tickets.”
While Nichols’ take on Aquaman would have certainly made more than hundreds, billions would probably be several steps too far. He’ll get his shot at a big budget studio movie eventually, but it’s probably for the best that he missed out on diving into the treacherous waters of the DCEU when Wan’s aquatic epic ended up becoming such a monster.