One of the main reasons why James Wan’s Aquaman proved to be so incredibly popular is that it felt like a breath of fresh air for the DCEU, which had been a largely self-serious enterprise up until the movie’s release in December 2018.
Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman and Justice League had largely favored frowning over fun, and while there’s nothing wrong with that approach to a certain extent, a little levity never hurt anyone.
Lo and behold, along came Jason Momoa’s bro-tastic Arthur Curry in a blockbuster that featured Dolph Lundgren riding an armored seahorse into battle, an octopus playing a drum solo and just a sense of all-round silliness that audiences couldn’t get enough of if the $1.1 billion box office haul is any indication.
Sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has officially wrapped production, and while Wan confirmed in an interview with Total Film that the second installment will be “more mature but yet still retains its fun”, producer Peter Safran went one step further by revealing that the team has “turned the dials up to eleven”.
That’s encouraging to hear, because the people who loved the unabashed ridiculousness and infectious enthusiasm that characterized the opener aren’t going into Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom expecting intimate and introspective drama, so ratcheting things up a notch is what we’re all expecting and hoping to see.
