Amid a flurry of schedule changes for Warner Bros. DC movies — most of them delays — Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom director James Wan remains hopeful for his film, despite being pushed from a Dec. 16 release date to March 17, 2023.
Wan’s remarks on social media come the same day other DC movies had delays announced, such as The Flash being pushed into 2023 and Black Adam being pushed to Oct. of this year. One silver lining among all the announcements is that Shazam! Fury of the Gods will actually be coming to theaters sooner than expected, moving from a summer 2023 release date to Dec. 16, 2022.
Wan took to Instagram Wednesday to let his fans know about the delay and to reassure them that he has been working “nonstop, day and night” on his director’s cut from his home set up — for 15 hours at a time. He even shared an image of his desk with what appears to be some footage from the unreleased film.
The Saw director went on to say that since the movie “is nearly all visual effects,” he’s actually “thankful for the extra time needed to craft this thing right.”
“Working with groundbreaking new technology, I’m blown away by some of the early tests coming in. I’m cautiously optimistic and excited, and can’t wait to share when the time is ready,” he said.
DC fans got an absolute feast of a film with The Batman this past weekend, which impressively raked in $128.5 million domestically, the second-highest opening weekend at the box office since the ongoing coronavirus pandemic started (second only to Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home).
Hopefully, that will hold comic book movie fans over as we await more DC films slated for later than we initially expected, including what Wan is teasing may be another visual feast when Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom hits theaters a year from now.