We are currently in the weirdest phase of the DCEU ever, one where it’s about to end, kind of, with its final string of films, most of which have either underperformed or…become some of the worst box office flops in history, in the case of The Flash.
The situation is so strange because:
A) James Gunn said Blue Beetle (also not performing great) is the first real DCU era film.
B) Aquaman 2 comes out after it starring the DCEU Jason Momoa version of the character.
C) Gunn has indicated that some DCEU actors, possibly including Momoa, may not have their JLA members recast going forward.
Aquaman 2 is a deeply weird situation specifically because of all this, and even stranger is that this movie is allegedly coming out this year on December 20. This is despite the fact that after all this time, not a second of footage has been publicly seen from it, no teasers, no trailers. I don’t even think we’ve seen an official still image from it. So is it really going to hit that date?
THR published a big story about Aquaman about a month ago that chronicled how it has undergone three separate instances of reshoots, and a reminder that it was already postponed an entire year, originally slated for December 2022.
There’s also an entire thing about Batman. Well, Batmen. The original plan was supposed to feature Michael Keaton’s Batman who was going to pop up in different films “like Nick Fury.” He was supposed to appear in Batgirl, a movie that was allegedly so bad that WB killed the finished film entirely, and was a main character in The Flash, the mega-bomb. So then Ben Affleck was brought in to replace Keaton once a new DC regime rolled in. But now in the James Gunn era, the third set of bosses, there is no Batman in the movie at all. Lots of Batman drama for an Aquaman movie.
WB really wants to get Aquaman 2 right given that the original was a surprise $1 billion hit, the single highest global box office gross for a DCEU film. If something similar happened this time around, it could offset all the misses happening as of late with Black Adam, Shazam 2, Blue Beetle and even The Flash. But the trouble production may indicate otherwise.
If WB thought that the James Gunn era would bring peace and calm to DC and a clean slate refresh, that does not appear to be happening yet, and Aquaman 2 is the last, very weird project that fans may not invest in when they think the entire DCEU is dead after this final movie. Though again, Gunn has muddied the waters, not committing to replacing any other JLA members besides Superman and Batman with his own new actors. And yet no other Wonder Woman, Flash or Aquaman projects were announced in his upcoming, huge slate of DC films and shows. All of this is just pure chaos, and I’d frankly be amazed of Aquaman isn’t delayed again at this rate.
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