AQUAMAN & THE LOST KINGDOM Director Says Sequel Is "Heavily Inspired" By... PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES!

We still don't have much to go on when it comes to the plot of Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom, but director James Wan has now shared his main inspiration for the sequel: Planet of the Vampires!

By MarkCassidy - Aug 19, 2021 03:08 AM EST

Filed Under: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has been filming in the UK for a few weeks at this point, but we still don't know what to expect from the plot. Now, director James Wan has given us a little more to go on by revealing his surprising inspiration for the DCEU sequel.

During an interview with Total Film, Wan suggested that he'd be returning to his horror roots for Aquaman 2, drawing influence from, of all things, campy '60s Italian horror film Planet of the Vampires.

“Aquaman 2 is very heavily inspired by Planet of the Vampires,” said the filmmaker. “You can take the boy out of horror but you can never take the horror out the boy.”

This is interesting for a number of reasons. While Wan's comments obviously suggest that The Lost Kingdom will feature more horror elements, Planet of the Vampires is not exactly what you'd call a fine example of the genre. It has achieved cult status because of it's schlocky charm, but it's generally considered to be a bit of a joke.

Still, we might be able to glean some information from the movie's plot, which focuses on two spaceships on an exploratory mission to the planet Aura who come under attack from the mysterious aliens who reside there. Can we assume Aquaman and his allies will encounter new, hostile life forms when they reach the Lost Kingdom of the title?

"Well, the first movie took a lot of people by surprise, right? And that’s partially because they were not familiar with the comic book, which deals in this very lurid, strange world," Wan continued. "People were taken aback that I didn’t throw all that stuff away and make a dark, heavy film. But I didn’t feel that would have been right for it. So with the second film, I feel it will be easier for people to accept where we go because I’ve already laid the foundation."

What do you guys make of Wan's comments? Are you glad to hear that the Aquaman sequel might be taking things in a slightly darker direction?

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30 Comments

bkmeijer2 - 8/19/2021, 3:49 AM

Guess since the Trench movie isn't in the works anymore, Wan has to throw in some horror elsewhere

mastakilla39 - 8/19/2021, 7:03 AM

@bkmeijer - James Wan loves B-movie schlock. He grew up watching a bunch of straight to vhs and dvd films from Blockbuster so he tends to make his movies in that vain but with a slightly better script and bigger budget. The outrageous ideas in his movies come from those B-grade films or those obscure foreign films that randomly end up at blockbuster.

So I have no doubt that Aquaman 2 is not going to be any better than 1 but the scale is going to be huge with b-movie ideas.

bkmeijer2 - 8/19/2021, 8:14 AM

@mastakilla39 - for me Wan made it work with the first movie, so I got faith in him to make another Aquaman movie I like

IcePyke - 8/19/2021, 3:56 AM

The Original "Alien"

Mattyjj2395 - 8/19/2021, 4:03 AM

Isn't it James wan not James gunn? But yeah sounds pretty cool always been a fan of his horror stuff

Repian - 8/19/2021, 4:13 AM

I think the lost kingdom is an Atlantean legend. A kingdom similar to El Dorado. But the truth is that a hostile plague of bloodthirsty creatures attacked the kingdom, killing all the inhabitants. In a desperate attempt to contain the plague, the King sealed the doors, trapping all the creatures. Now the lost kingdom is a necropolis where creatures wait for an opportunity to escape.

Fares - 8/19/2021, 4:17 AM

Yeah whenever they come out and say something like this, I have to see it to believe it, just like Doctor Strange.
The first Aquaman was far from being at the top of my DCEU list, so I hope Wan does some course correction with this one.

Mrcool210 - 8/19/2021, 4:33 AM

Aquaman was a movie where literally everything about it was top notch except the script so hearing that they are leaning more into goofy shlock is a little disappointing. They can only get away with that sort of thing once for me. Try it again not sure they can capture lightning in a bottle

JermareCBM - 8/19/2021, 5:02 AM

If you don't get rid of Amber Turd, I don't care. Not watching.

IronGenesis - 8/19/2021, 5:04 AM

Lost Kingdom…Planet of Vampires…Savage Land…Gilligan’s Island?

All sounds like a plot that could see some combination of Arthur/Mera/Manta/Orm stranded on a Lost Kingdom of “Vampires” and forced to become allies while sometimes fighting each other too.

Scarilian - 8/19/2021, 6:08 AM

@IronGenesis -
They'll be stranded in 'The Trench' probably.

emeraldtaurus - 8/19/2021, 5:22 AM

Just dying to see J Momoa with short blond hair and no beard. Should look like the early manips when he first got cast.

Super12 - 8/19/2021, 6:27 AM

@emeraldtaurus - honestly, if they did that for the 3rd movie I wouldn't be upset. Not sure how they'd fit it into the story but it'd be cool to see.

LameLuka - 8/19/2021, 1:46 PM

@emeraldtaurus - not happening, he is going to look like he did in the other 2 movies. The short blonde hair don't work for Momoa

emeraldtaurus - 8/20/2021, 1:11 AM

@LameLuka - he's going short blonde with a clwan shave...Mamoa confirmed it in a recent article.

dirtyscore - 8/19/2021, 6:27 AM

Considering the first movie felt like a B-movie from the 90's, feels about right the schlock continues.

I'm just curious to see how this movie will fare with Amber Heard on it.

noahthegrand - 8/19/2021, 11:36 AM

One of Mario Bava’s films. I really like that director. He made a lot of good and very influential films. I’ve never seen this one. He actually worked on I, Vampiri, Italy’s first horror movie with sound. And he made Bay of Blood and Blood and Black Lace which both were inspirations for slasher movies. Kill Baby Kill, which he made, is one of the first ever killer ghost children movies. Black Sunday and Black Sabbath are two of his best films, and Black Sabbath has Boris Karloff of Frankenstein fame in it.

I haven’t seen this movie though. But I will probably watch it eventually because Planet of The Vampires is a badass sounding title.

4thMaster - 8/19/2021, 1:18 PM

Guess I'll add Planet of the Vampires to the list.

Rastarapha - 9/28/2021, 6:42 PM

When I see how wan managed to mix and pay homage to many kinds of movies in the 1st one I can only be happy with this news

AQUAMAN & THE LOST KINGDOM Director Says Sequel Is "Heavily Inspired" By... PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES!

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