After a series of critical and commercial flops, Warner Bros. Discovery will soon reboot the DC Extended Universe as the DCU with a slate of movies and TV shows from DC Studios which has been dubbed "Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters."
James Gunn and Peter Safran are set to oversee this relaunch, though some of the decisions they've made have already come under fire. That's included casting, with most of the Justice League set to be replaced. In the case of Aquaman actor Jason Momoa, it's widely believed he'll ditch Arthur Curry to play Lobo instead.
That likely means the franchise will end with this December's Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, a surprise considering the fact the 2018 movie made over $1.1 billion. Then again, we're hearing this sequel is a disaster after abysmal test screenings and what sounds like endless reshoots!
During a recent interview with Screen Rant, filmmaker James Wan was asked for his thoughts on the reboot and, while he neither praised nor criticised DC Studios' approach to resetting this shard world, it sounds like the changes have presented some challenges!
"I'm aware of everything that's happening around me. I mean, I use the analogy that I'm living in a house that's getting renovated," he says. "It's hard to not be aware of the renovation that's happening around me."
"But the beauty about Aquaman is that we've always designed these two films to be within their own world. The advantage of not being hooked into this bigger universe is whatever happens over there doesn't really affect my movie. This film doesn't hook into anything. It lives in its own world."
"That's what we found worked really well for us on the first film, and we're doing exactly the same," Wan concluded. "There's noise going around, but I'm just in my cocoon, in my underwater kingdom."
Among the challenges Wan has faced courtesy of changing regimes is having to reshoot and then remove a Batman-focused post-credits scene and likely any other references that would tie this follow-up to the wider DCEU.
If Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom exceeds expectations when all is said and done, this iteration of the King of Atlantis may surface in the DCU as well; unfortunately, it currently looks unlikely.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be released on December 20.