Much to the surprise of no one, over the past few days horror maestro James Wan has been soliciting all kinds of Aquaman questions during the press rounds for The Conjuring 2.
Championing the “super cool” villains indigenous to the world of Atlantis, it’s clear that Wan has developed an affinity for the DC hero. But during a recent interview with Uproxx, the filmmaker revealed that Warner Bros. initially offered him a choice between Aquaman and The Flash.
Opting for Arthur Curry over Barry Allen – eventually opening up the director’s chair for Rick Famuyiwa in the process – Wan noted that the prospect of Aquaman opens up a lot more creative freedom precisely because DC’s King of the Seven remains relatively fresh, whereas The CW has already had a crack at The Flash‘s origins story.
But the thing that ultimately pushed me more towards Aquaman is I love the possibility of creating a whole new world. I’ve always wanted to do a world creation story and visually create this amazing, incredible, magical kingdom. And also, I love the fact that Aquaman is an underdog character. I love the fact that people like to make fun of him. [Laughs.] I feel the bar is a lot lower and I can have fun with him.
In essence, this allows Wan to execute his own brand of world building when it comes to bringing Atlantis to the big screen.
What it allows me to do: I think people are a lot less precious with him than, let’s say, you were doing a Spider-Man or a Batman or whatever.
Starring Amber Heard and Jason Momoa in the title role, Aquaman is expected to make shore on July 27, 2018.
