To get the clearest picture of the downfall of the DCEU, just look at the differing releases of 2018’s Aquaman and its upcoming sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. The first outran mixed reviews to swim past the coveted $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, becoming the most successful entry in its franchise. The second, meanwhile, is coming out in just over 100 days and it doesn’t even have a trailer yet.
Obviously, a lot of what’s stacked up against Aquaman 2 is beyond its control — the strikes, Amber Heard’s legal drama, the lingering effects of the pandemic on cinema — but, regardless, it seems like the world is far less hyped for a sequel to a record-breaking, globally popular superhero blockbuster than it should be. With Dune Part Two already vacating this year’s slate in order to be given more room to breathe in 2024, you’d think Warner Bros. might give The Lost Kingdom the same treatment. But, nope, that’s apparently not the plan.
As you may have seen, Aquaman 2 action figures are already beginning to hit shelves in various international territories, so the rollout of the merchandise tie-ins highly indicates that the studio is fully prepared to stick with its planned Dec. 20 release date, even if the movie seems doomed to sink rather than soar given how things are going. We’re living in an improbable time when toys — that curiously look nothing like Amber Heard — are releasing before a trailer.
Without any new DC movies coming in 2024, as James Gunn’s DCU doesn’t kick off until 2025, it wouldn’t cause too much of a kerfuffle to the long-term plans to push Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom into next year, when its cast can actually promote it and the hype levels have risen a little. And yet WB appears dead-set on sticking to this dead-weight release schedule.
