For a very long time, Aquaman looked like it might be a box office bomb of epic proportions. With Warner Bros.’ DCEU still reeling from the abject disaster of Justice League, we went months and months without a trailer and there was vicious Hollywood gossip about behind-the-scenes drama.
And, on top of all that, this was an Aquaman film. For the last two decades the character has been a figure of fun and the butt of ‘talks to fish’ jokes. But then, it finally saw release and, well, it was great!
James Wan’s carefully designed undersea world looked stunning, Jason Momoa was a charisma machine and supporting actors Nicole Kidman and Willem Dafoe lent the pic some real gravitas. Plus, you really can’t argue with an octopus drummer.
The movie ended up being one of the few true successes in the DCEU, turning into a $1 billion box office hit and receiving a positive critical reception. With all that praise, you’d expect Warner Bros to want to get Aquaman 2 off the ground (or under the water) as soon as possible, but it seems that James Wan wants to spend a little more time indulging in his passion for horror first.
Exactly what that unknown horror title will be remains a mystery, though we do know that it’ll be in the vein of his work on The Conjuring series and that it’ll be co-written by Wan and Ingrid Bis. The current plan is for him to film the movie this fall and then go straight into pre-production for Aquaman 2, which is scheduled for release on December 16th, 2022.
After Aquaman, his Fast and Furious movie and The Conjuring franchise, Wan can pretty much write his own cheques in Hollywood. Everything he touches turns to gold and I, for one, can’t wait to see what scares he’s cooking up with this new horror project.