2018’s Aquaman was an plain success for DC. It raked in over a billion {dollars} on the field workplace, launched a wilder, wackier facet to a comic-book world that had been a lot darker in tone up till then – and, after all, gave us Topo the drumming octopus. A sequel was a no brainer, and so was James Wan returning to the director’s chair. Since going into manufacturing, although, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom has been by way of lots. Pandemic-induced delays, a reshuffle at Warner Bros – which noticed James Gunn and Peter Safran take cost of DC Studios – and extra have contributed to a swirl of rumours concerning the movie, together with these of studio interference and in depth reshoots.
“I’ve needed to be taught to be extra Zen in coping with all of the noise round me, for certain,” James Wan tells Empire, as a part of our world-exclusive Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom cowl story. “I’m a fairly personal individual. I don’t get on social media and have fights, however it’s troublesome as a result of this narrative has emerged that’s not the fact. The noise is enjoyable to jot down about, and it will get clicks, however individuals don’t know the reality.” There might have been a change in management over at DC, however Wan gives the look that he felt safe in realising his imaginative and prescient for the sequel, and in sustaining the epic, eccentric tone he had established in Arthur Curry’s first outing. “Look, I’m a collaborative filmmaker — I welcome individuals’s ideas and opinions,” Wan says. “But in the end, I really feel I’ve greater than confirmed myself. So, it was like: ‘This is the film I need to make.’”
With regards to reshoots, Wan argues that they had been according to what’s anticipated for a movie as huge in scale as Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom. “We most likely did seven or eight days,” he says, “which is nothing for a film of this dimension. It was simply unfold out as a result of it’s so arduous to get your actors again when you’ve completed the preliminary shoot.” And these further days, Wan reminds us, can all the time spawn one thing new and thrilling. “I constructed a complete franchise from a reshoot!” he says, referring to his extraordinarily profitable The Nun franchise, the spooky star of which happened from last-minute further pictures on The Conjuring 2. “I’m not the type of individual that claims, ‘This film has to end up precisely how I deliberate it on day one.’ Your artwork won’t ever be natural in the event you’re locked into that mentality.” Whatever the ups and downs had been in creating this second Aquaman movie, they have not deterred Wan from contemplating the potential of directing one other instalment. “I haven’t directed a 3rd film [in a series] earlier than, so I’d be open to doing one other [Aquaman] if I obtained the identical freedom I’ve had on these first two,” he says. “I’m undecided what course [Gunn and Safran] are moving into, although, so who is aware of? I’ve realized to by no means say by no means.”
Read Empire’s full world-exclusive Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom cowl story – chatting with James Wan about his journey following up DC’s mega-splash blockbuster, tapping again into his horror roots, and navigating the altering course of the DCEU – within the December 2023 difficulty. Pre-order a replica on-line right here, or change into an Empire member to entry the digital version on launch day. Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom involves UK cinemas from 20 December.
