Jason Mamoa in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Three months before its release, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is already making waves. Unfortunately for Warner Brothers Discovery and its DC superhero empire, the waves created by the film are unlikely to subside. Amber Heard, star of 2018's Aquaman, claims she was dropped from the sequel following her split from Johnny Depp and subsequent libel lawsuits. Jason Momoa, aka the eponymous Aquaman/Arthur Curry, admits he's baffled by the original's $1 billion box office haul. Director James Wan was recently hospitalized, although he denies that the stress of the harrowing process of bringing The Lost Kingdom to the screen had anything to do with it.
“Every movie kills me as a director,” he told Entertainment Weekly — it's not exactly the endorsement DC would have hoped for from the custodian of its most suspect franchise.
Van recovered. But the second Aquaman continues to choke as the countdown to its December 20 release continues. Between numerous reshoots, failed test screenings, and confusion over the participation or absence of Batman actors Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck, it's hard not to conclude that the project is cursed. The new CGI-heavy trailer doesn't bode well. This suggests that The Lost Kingdom looks as flimsy and fake as DC's ill-fated Flash movie did last summer. Considering how much of a flop The Flash was, it's hard not to see how Aquaman could be anything other than a disaster.
Most of the failures associated with The Lost Kingdom occurred outside the control of Wan and his production team. The original «Aquaman» was an unexpected juggernaut and the most successful film in the troubled DC Cinematic Universe, earning $1.14 billion compared to the relatively paltry $658 million of the more hyped «Justice League.» In this context, a sequel was greenlit in 2019 (after previous plans for a Lovecraftian spin-off based on the water monsters of the Trench were scrapped).
Throughout filming in 2021 and early 2022, everything went according to plan. Then cracks appeared. In April 2022, WarnerMedia merged with Discovery. This led to the departure of the Warner executives who brought Aquaman to the screen, Toby Emmerich and Walter Hamada.
Their replacements, Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, took over the helm of the supposedly completed The Lost Kingdom, which was shown to test audiences. Reviews weren't positive, with fans finding The Lost Kingdom «boring,» a charge no one could level at the outrageous but entertaining original Aquaman. Abdi took the reins and brought Momoa back to New Zealand for reshoots. The second version, which Abdi supervised, was shown to a test audience. The reaction was even more negative than to Wang's version. By this point, the budget had increased to $205 million, $40 million more than the original.
Then came the Batman headache. Previous DC studio chief Hamda wanted Michael Keaton's aging Batman to play a prominent role. Hamda's vision was for Batkiton to become the Marvel Universe equivalent of Samuel Jackson's Nick Fury, a reassuringly grumpy character who has appeared in various projects since The Flash.
Jason Mamoa and Aquaman director James Wan Photo: Christian Black
Plans changed when Du Luca and Abdi parachuted. Now The Lost Kingdom was supposed to come out before The Flash. And instead of Keaton, the new regime sought to bring back Batfleck. Ben Affleck had to suit up again. So, having already roped in Michael Keaton to film extra scenes in front of The Flash, Warner needed Affleck again. The studio also canceled the completed Batgirl film, in which Keaton had a prominent role, burying it for a tax write-off.
Could the waters get more choppy? Wang got his answer on November 22, making an announcement that was kryptonite for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has been announced as head of the newly formed DC Studios. Gunn, who worked with Peter Safran, the producer of horror films “The Conjuring” and “Annabelle,” was given carte blanche to reimagine the DC universe. Meanwhile, Warner shuffled the schedule again — moving The Lost Kingdom to December (in the new interview, Wan neither confirmed nor denied Keaton and Affleck's cameos).
Michael Keaton as Batman in The Flash Credits: Pennsylvania
One of Gunn's first moves was to announce a new DC cast — starting with an all-new Superman, written and directed by Gunn, and a new actor replacing Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel (Cavill recently cameoed as Superman in Black Adam). . Gunn was ambivalent about the DC projects already in development. He praised The Flash, calling it one of the greatest superhero films ever made. It's not, and if it stalls at the box office, it risks losing $200 million. This came on the heels of the equally disastrous Shazam 2 (losses were estimated at $150 million) and ahead of Blue Beetle, which is currently DC's highest-grossing film to date.
While gung-ho about The Flash, Gunn kept his advice on The Lost Kingdom even though Jason Momoa expressed surprise that the first Aquaman was such a phenomenon. “To be honest, I was completely baffled that Aquaman was received so well,” he said in April. “I have done amazing things that no one sees and no one pays attention to. You just don't understand this business.»
Amber Heard in the movie «Aquaman» Photo: Jasin Boland
While the Aquaman saga was playing out, another drama was unfolding in the United States as Johnny Depp sued his ex Amber Heard for defamation. On the witness stand, Heard complained that negative publicity surrounding her split from Depp led to her being dropped from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Another absence is Willem Dafoe, who played Curry's mentor in the first film. Wan says «scheduling conflicts» meant Dafoe was unavailable (the director added that there is an expanded role for Nicole Kidman as Aquaman's mother).
“I was given the script, and then they gave me new versions of the script that removed scenes that had action, that depicted my character and another character, without any spoilers, two characters fighting each other, and they basically , they didn’t take me in my role at all,” Hurd told the court. “They just deleted a bunch.”
'Flimsy CGI': Patrick Wilson in Aquaman » and «The Lost Kingdom» Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Wang denied that this was the case when speaking to Entertainment Weekly. While the first film focused on Aquaman's romance with Hurd Mera, the sequel focused on his complicated relationship with his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), the villain from the original Aquaman. Heard is indeed present in the new trailer — if only for a nanosecond. Blink and you wouldn't notice her at all. All eyes are on Arthur Curry, Orm and the bug-eyed villain Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). Several funny scenes in the trailer suggest that DC may have learned the wrong lessons from Taika Waititi's Thor films for Marvel.
Aquaman is doomed? Wang insists he remains in control. Gunn «weighed in,» the director says. But Wan insists it's still «his movie.» He added that all of his films — starting with his acclaimed 2004 horror film Saw — have included some degree of fighting, and that Aquaman 2 is no exception. “Every movie kills me. If a movie doesn't kill you as a director, you're not doing a good enough job.»
Perhaps Wang is right. Warner Brothers Discovery's concern is that Aquaman 2, rocked by waves of controversy, appears dead on arrival.
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