‘Aquaman’ Director Explains How Underwater Talking Works And Why Aquaman Is Like Wolverine

Aquaman director James Wan (Furious 7, Saw, The Conjuring) always seems to be forthright and generous in interviews, and his recent interview with IGN is no exception, although he wouldn’t confirm or deny the recent villain rumors. (There’s “forthright and generous,” and then there’s “getting yourself fired, so fired.”)

The Australian director touched on many topics, like using Justice League as “an experiment for me to see what works” and having his Aquaman influenced by Geoff Johns’ run (which he’s said before). Wan also revealed which Marvel character Aquaman reminds him of:

“I actually think it’s a brilliant move on Zack and co. to cast someone like Jason [Momoa]. Immediately, the whole joke aspect of Aquaman goes out the window. You have such a muscular, superhero-y character and one that is almost, to me, in some ways… I look at him, he’s kind of the Wolverine in some respect. He’s the outsider who gets pulled into this world and he kind of doesn’t want to belong and he was doing his own thing. And he prided freedom above everything else. That kind of plays nicely into who his character is. He’s like a reluctant superhero, right? He’s the reluctant king, basically, or would-be king.”

It’s good to be the king. Sort of. When everyone else in the Justice League isn’t busting your chops for being the Aquaman of the group. The talking to dolphins thing also seems like it would be pretty cool, although I bet everything they say is super perverted.

Wan also made a joke about characters using speech bubbles before revealing how he may actually portray characters speaking underwater:

“I love the idea of underwater speaking but with a real sort of sonic, aquatic quality to it. So there’s this sort of aquatic, almost sonar/whale thing. Even though it’s in a human language, there’s this slight sort of underlay to it, this ping to it, which I think would be interesting for us to design from a sound design perspective.”

I wonder how many people are going to complain about the realism of the underwater talking in the movie about a sexy magic man who controls aquatic beasts in the briny deep? I really want to hear the “well, actually” arguments about that one.

(Via IGN)

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