Aquaman has grossed over $1.31 billion, so a sequel and a spinoff are already in the works. Aquaman 2 was announced after Aquaman passed the billion dollar mark, and a release date for the sequel was eventually announced: December 16th, 2022. If that seems like a long way off, you’re right. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, producer Peter Safran explained the reason for the delay: “You don’t want to do it fast. You just want to do it right.”
Meanwhile, the spinoff — The Trench, based on those creepy creatures from the Marianas Trench — will be coming much sooner, revealed Safran. We already know James Wan is returning to direct the “modestly budgeted” horror spinoff, which will not include Jason Momoa or Amber Heard. Safran filled THR in on new details, including that The Trench is set after the events of Aquaman, and has been in the works for quite awhile.
“We always, even from the early concept art days, loved the idea of a Trench movie. Then, when audiences embraced it in the movie itself the way they did, particularly that ant farm shot where the camera follows the Trench [creatures] following Arthur and Mera down into the deep, we just knew that we had something very special there and we knew what that movie should be. And consequently, I suspect that that’s one that will come out significantly before Aquaman 2,” Safran told THR.
Safran also hinted that any of the seven kingdoms of Atlantis could lend themselves to a spinoff next, though I’ll admit I’m surprised The Trench was the kingdom they chose to spin off first. Then again, James Wan’s horror movie cred could make an interesting lower-budget horror movie with these creatures, although I can’t picture how that fits into the rest of the DC Universe. I can’t picture any DC movie making bank without Wonder Woman or Aquaman at this point…
The current state of the DCEU pic.twitter.com/bzDucVoYTh
— Nicholas (@NicholasJLevi) December 24, 2018
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)