‘Aquaman 2’ director James Wan addresses ‘The Lost Kingdom’ reshoot reports

Christopher Rosen
·3 min read
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Warner Bros. executives may have moved the release of “Dune: Part Two” into 2024, allegedly due to the current writers’ and actors’ strikes, but the studio is holding firm on “Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom.” The sequel to the blockbuster 2018 original film was initially set to arrive in theaters in December 2022, but reshoots and general release shuffling forced the project to December 2023. As a result, the “Aquaman” sequel, which was originally set to premiere before “The Flash,” now arrives after that film’s notorious release.

All the maneuvers wreaked havoc on the film, The Hollywood Reporter revealed in July, particularly due to an alleged appearance by Batman. Initially, original Batman actor Michael Keaton was set to appear in “Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom,” but when James Gunn and Peter Safran took over the DC Films universe at Warner Bros., Keaton’s role in the cinematic universe was greatly diminished (Keaton appeared in “The Flash” and his version of Batman eventually died in another DC universe). “Justice League” star Ben Affleck later reportedly did reshoots as Batman, but with the Zack Snyder version of the DC Universe having run its course – plus “The Flash” reshuffling the DC deck so that Affleck’s Batman is no longer technically Batman in the main timeline – the Oscar winner’s role in the film also lost significance. In July, The Hollywood Reporter suggested neither actor would play Batman in “Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom” despite all the reshoots.

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Speaking to Entertainment Weekly with “Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom” three months from release, director James Wan addressed the reshoot reporting and teased that viewers would have to see the movie to figure out which Batman – if any – will help Aquaman on his latest adventure.

“The tricky thing early on was not knowing whether ‘Aquaman’ would come out first or come out after [‘The Flash’]. So, we just had to be prepared. At the end of the day, the best thing I would say about this movie is that it is not connected in any way to any of those films. That’s the bottom line,” Wan said. Asked more firmly if Batman appears in the film, Wan added, “That’s a ‘no comment,’ right now. You’re going to have to wait for the movie to come out.”

About the reshoots, Wan said that capturing the extra material was par for the course on blockbusters in the modern age. He also suggested that scheduling the busy cast – which includes Jason Momoa, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Patrick Wilson – was a challenge. “We have big actors in this movie, and everyone’s schedule is really hard. So, we had to break up our shooting schedule into sections,” Wan said. “We’ll shoot a bit here now, because this actor’s available, and then we’ll do another shoot now because this guy’s available. People are like, ‘Oh, they’re doing a whole bunch of different shoots!’ No. If we combined them all, it’s not that many number of days at all.”

A new trailer for “Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom” will arrive soon. The film remains scheduled for release on December 20.

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