When you heard the words “Star Wars underwater,” the first place your thoughts might go to is the Gungan city sequence from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, but with Aquaman coming out at the end of this year, James Wan hopes to change all that. The director allegedly made this highly quotable comparison almost a year ago, and based on reactions to the various images recently released from the upcoming DC movie, the Furious 7 helmsman may well know what he’s talking about.
The new photo of Djimon Hounsou as the Fisherman King proved particularly popular with Twitter users, who were quick to point out the visual parallels between the Jason Momoa blockbuster and the long-running space saga.
https://twitter.com/TheDCEUScene/status/1017876354325307392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/UberKryptonian/status/1017811901986889729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Though it’s unlikely that Wan particularly wants his film to be likened to what is arguably the most hated movie in the Star Wars franchise, the similarities are pretty hard to ignore when you put the images from Arthur Curry’s first solo outing next to shots from the home of Boss Nass and the rest of Jar Jar’s floppy-eared ilk.
Don't listen to people who say you can't reinvent yourself. #StarWars #BossNassLoadedWithSass pic.twitter.com/pWT6EWTX68
— Max (@ArbiterDroid) July 13, 2018
They did say Aquaman was going to be like Star Wars underwater pic.twitter.com/lQ1zesJ6kM
— Manuel Faria (@ManuelDuarte24) July 13, 2018
A few months ago, Jason Momoa doubled down on this Star Wars comparison while also throwing in some references to Indiana Jones and The Lord of the Rings. Of course, Wan would hardly be the first director to strive to make a blockbuster reminiscent of these exact three franchises, but we’ll see how his work stacks up against these influences when Aquaman swims into theaters on December 21st. With any luck, our Phantom Menace comparisons won’t be too on the nose.