Willem Dafoe Compares Aquaman To Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man

Australia’s famous Gold Coast has been playing host to Aquaman for the past few months, and during that time, budding DC fans have largely been kept in the loop thanks to a steady stream of set photos, not to mention those leaked videos showcasing Jason Momoa’s King of the Seven (and his co-stars!) in action.

Behind the lens for this one is James Wan, the esteemed filmmaker and all-around horror maestro who first made a name for himself through micro-budget scarefests in the vein of The Conjuring and Insidious. It didn’t take long before Hollywood executives took notice of Wan’s immense talent, either – Universal appointed him at the helm of Furious 7, which became the first entry in the petrolhead saga to cruise past $1 billion at the global box office.

The director has a great deal of experience in the blockbuster genre, then, and for Aquaman, he’s ready to up the ante. On board to help him achieve that vision – a vision that will purportedly portray Arthur Curry’s origin story as a family saga – are among others, Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko. No stranger to comic book movies, the actor recently spoke with Collider and touched base on how his experience shooting the DCEU pic compares with his last venture into the genre.

“[James Wan’s] enthusiasm is fantastic. In fact, his enthusiasm reminds me, very much, of Sam Raimi’s enthusiasm, to make a connection there. When I made Spider-Man with Sam Raimi, one of the most impressive things was that it didn’t feel like an industry film. It felt like a personal film. It felt like Sam Raimi was getting to fulfill a fantasy of his. He was so connected to that Spider-Man mythology that he really infused it with great love and great playfulness, and I love that. James Wan is very similar.”

While not really revealing, these comments are certainly encouraging to hear. After all, we’ve still yet to really see anything from the movie and though early buzz seems to be positive, we really need to lay eyes on some footage at this point, as it’s been too long without anything substantial to feast on. Unfortunately, there’s no word on when we may get the film’s first trailer, but hopefully it’ll be sooner rather than later. As always, we’ll let you know once we hear more.

Production on Warner Bros. and James Wan’s Aquaman is expected to continue through until October, at which point DC fans will be within touching distance of Justice League. It’ll bring about our first true look at the rightful Atlantean King in action across both land and sea, and with Wan promising to keep CGI to a minimum for Arthur Curry’s solo outing, December 21st, 2018 can’t come soon enough.