“Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdom” will hit theaters on December 21, 2023. So far, the last old DC-era film before the upcoming comic universe reboot has been accompanied by a lot of negative headlines – including constant changes and their attendant reshoots, a lead actor Jason Momoa reportedly being drunk on set, and the actress probably only involved in a small role, Amber Heard. The DC movie was even a big topic in her muddy lawsuit with ex-husband Johnny Depp.
Now director James Wan wants to look ahead and focus the conversation on the film itself. He refers to this in an interview again, that “Aquaman 2” differs significantly from its predecessor “Aquarius“will differentiate – but that was always his plan.
From the beginning, he presented the first film as his version of “The Hunt for the Green Diamond.” Like the model with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, ‘Aquaman’ is an ‘action-adventure-romance-comedy’ with Momoa and Heard as a couple at the center. But The second part was planned from the beginning with a different couple because it was always conceived as a “real buddy comedy”.
“Aquaman 2” follows in the footsteps of “Tango and Cash” & “Men In Black”
In the sequel, Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) must go on an adventure together. This story the director describes as his superhero version of “Tango and cash“. In the Sylvester Stallone classic, the ‘Rocky’ star and Kurt Russell must come together as an unlikely police duo. A similar dynamic will likely exist between Aquaman and Orm – although Wan also uses a different model for this: the comic book adaptation “Men in Black”:
“I wanted to do ‘Tango & Cash’. Jason plays Arthur larger than life, Patrick plays the straight-talking guy. “It’s also similar to what Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones did in ‘Men in Black’ – like Tommy, Patrick plays the whole thing dryly but very funny,” Wan added. .
Wan plays down negative rumors: not that many new recordings
Wan can do it completely in conversation with but don’t avoid talking about the many negative rumors surrounding his film. He has learned to “be calmer with all the noise,” referring to his attempts to ignore most of the chatter. But he still wanted to point out two things.
Reports about ongoing reshoots are exaggerated. Apparently things have changed several times. What is known is that Michael Keaton was originally set to appear as Batman, but Ben Affleck subsequently joined the role and was on set instead. Now the figure is probably missing completely. Furthermore, poor results in test screenings would have led to changes and thus readmissions.
According to Wan, there were actually so many different reshoots because the many stars involved had such busy schedules. You had to shoot a bit here because there was one person available, and then shoot again there because someone else was available. If you add up all the time, that is not exceptionally high for such a large-scale production. There were maybe seven or eight days of reshoots.
He also attaches importance to the statement that he was able to realize his vision of “Aquaman 2” as a buddy movie from the start. He refutes rumors that management at Warner and DC, which changed several times during the film’s production, was constantly introducing new ideas.
“Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdomstarts on December 21, 2023.