Fresh off summoning The Enfield Poltergeist into theaters in the form of The Conjuring 2, director James Wan will soon turn his attention to Aquaman, the 2018 spinoff movie that elects Jason Momoa as DC’s King of the Seven.
Details of when Wan will fire up production remain thin on the ground, but that hasn’t prevented the filmmaker from indulging in the lore of Atlantis and the unique nature of Aquaman‘s world.
Speaking to Cinema Blend, the horror maestro discussed the crowded (oversaturated?) superhero genre in general, before zeroing in on Aquaman in particular and why it’s only now, aided by the modern film and CG technology, that an origins tale of Atlantis can be crafted with the big screen in mind.
“There are so many superhero movies now; I don’t want to make a superhero movie now for the sake of doing it, but there’s something unique to the world of Aquaman. There’s a reason why they’ve never made a movie about this until now, because technology has never allowed us to tackle something this complicated. And so because of that it feels like something different, and that uniqueness is what I’m excited about.”
Also on board for Wan’s superhero flick are Amber Heard as Mera and, potentially, Willem Dafoe in a role that will also span into Zack Snyder’s Justice League movie. But what of the movie’s antagonist(s)? Further in the interview, Wan teased some of the “super cool” and larger-than-life villains associated with Aquaman.
I gotta say, one thing I love about the Aquaman world is all the really different, really interesting characters. They are interesting characters, including the villains – I’m not going to tell you which villains I’m going to play with! [laughs] But they’re super cool. They’re very larger than life, but they’re unique.
Speculative reports may have suggested James Wan was headed toward the exit door, but the director remains firmly at the helm of Aquaman, which is booked in for a theatrical release on July 27, 2018.