Waiting for Aquaman 2 to drop is a little nerve-wracking, given that the last string of DCEU movies have either been utterly terrible, performed terribly, or both. Blue Beetle, kind of, sort of, was the start of the DCU, but now we have Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, allegedly out this year, as the last “official” DCEU movie, from what we can tell.
But director James Wan really does not want that badge, it seems. In a new interview with EW where Wan is questioned about which Batman allegedly filmed cameos for the movie, Justice League’s Affleck or The Flash’s Keaton, he said:
“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.”
This isn’t to say that Aquaman 2 is not “in” the DCEU, but that it will not connect to any events from The Flash, or before that, old Justice League storylines. The connection is instead, of course, just to Aquaman 1, where now old enemies, Arthur and Orm, will have to team up. And yet, Wan isn’t saying one way or another whether some sort of Batman will appear. “You’re going to have to wait for the movie to come out,” he says.
The line between the DCEU and DCU is perhaps the blurriest when it comes to a character like Aquaman. When the James Gunn takeover was announced, immediately speculation turned to the idea that Jason Momoa would flip to playing Lobo in the new universe, as there were some nods in that direction. But Gunn went on to say that A) no actor would be playing double roles and B) that it was not necessarily the case that DCEU actors would have to give up their parts for the DCU.
That last part seemed like a reference to Momoa’s Aquaman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Ezra Miller’s Flash, as Batman and Superman were confirmed to be getting new actors at that point. But since then, The Flash became WB’s biggest bomb ever, and Gadot’s self-reported talks about a third Wonder Woman movie with Gunn have been disputed. So we’re really just left to wonder what’s going on with Momoa’s Aquaman.
Somehow, the original Aquaman ended up being a monster, billion dollar hit for the DCEU, raking in so much cash that Vincent Chase and James Cameron would be proud. As such, this sequel was inevitable, but now it drops at an odd time, and in an era where imagining that Aquaman 2 is going to top the total of the first seems absolutely impossible.
I am sure that James Wan just wants to make the best movie he can and connect it purely to the characters and arcs he created in the first movie. While Momoa’s Aquaman has shown up in guest-starring roles and cameos elsewhere, this is Wan’s playground now. I’m looking forward to it.
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