Having been forced to wait two years longer than expected to finally hit theaters, in an ideal world the buzz for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom would be starting to reach fever pitch right about now.
After all, we’re talking about the sequel to the highest-grossing DC Comics adaptation that’s ever made, but the opposite has proven to be true, and we’re not even talking about the franchise dying a slow and painful death after suffering three consecutive box office disasters this year alone.
The underwater follow-up has been beset by bad buzz for a while now, ranging from extensive reshoots and repeated test screenings that failed to yield much in the way of positivity, while the specter of Amber Heard hovers in the background after bombshell claims that she was mistreated by both director James Wan and star Jason Momoa.
Even if it was 100 percent accurate, Wan obviously wouldn’t come right out and admit it, but he did make a point of noting to Empire that the external noise is ill-at-ease with his private persona.
“I’ve had to learn to be more Zen in dealing with all the noise around me, for sure. I’m a pretty private person. I don’t get on social media and have fights, but it’s difficult because this narrative has emerged that is not the reality. The noise is fun to write about, and it gets clicks, but people don’t know the truth. We probably did seven or eight days of reshoots, which is nothing for a movie of this size. It was just spread out because it’s so hard to get your actors back once you’ve finished the initial shoot.”
He hasn’t addressed the Heard situation – and maybe he never will – but we’ll find out one way or another if Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was as troubled as was claimed when it swims into cinemas in December.
