Deadline is reporting today that Warner Bros. has chosen to delay James Wan’s Aquaman. The film, starring Jason Momoa as the titular hero, was supposed to swim into theaters on October 5th, 2018. However, with James Cameron’s Avatar 2 now vacating its Christmas release date, the studio has decided to place their upcoming DC tentpole in December instead, where it’ll open on the 21st, just in time for the holidays.
There’s no word on why Warner Bros. moved the flick, but a two month delay isn’t that big of a deal and is hardly cause for concern. From everything we’ve heard, production is going well on the standalone outing for the hero and early buzz is quite positive. Given the DCEU’s track record thus far, and a few nasty rumors that have been making the rounds, some may point to this as a bad sign. As of now, however, we wouldn’t say there’s any reason to worry.
Of course, this isn’t the first delay that Aquaman has been hit with, as it was originally going to land on July 27th, 2018, so this is definitely a bit disappointing for fans who’ve been waiting to see what Wan’s come up with. At the very least though, it means the filmmakers now have more time to get things right and give us a proper big screen adaptation on the iconic hero, rather than rushing to meet a release date.
If we had to guess why the film was pushed back, it’s likely because Warner Bros. saw an opening left by Avatar 2 and decided to swoop in, since Christmas time is a much better release window for box office performance. They will face a bit of competition from Sony’s animated Spider-Man flick, which will also hit theaters the same day, but moving Aquaman to Christmas should still ensure that the blockbuster reaches a wide audience and maximizes profits for the studio.
