Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom had some issues to overcome. Amber Heard made some very strange accusations about some on-set behavior. There were rumors of negative test screening results and reshoots that may have been debunked. Also, while it was warming up for release, The Flash cratered and the DCEU was killed off completely.
Good or bad, it is going to be at least different from the first movie. Amber Heard’s Mera, the co-lead in the first film, has a much smaller role in this while Aquaman will team up with his brother, the villain of the first movie, Orm/Ocean Master (Patrick Wilson).
The tone is described as much darker than the first movie, with some ideas incorporated from the scrapped spin-off The Trench. The first movie was a surprise, given the tone of the rest of the DCEU. So will this movie forget to bring some of that lightness as well? Not according to director James Wan. In an interview with Empire he had this to say:
“From the start, I pitched that the first film would be a Romancing The Stone-type thing – an action-adventure romantic comedy – while the second would be an outright buddy comedy. I wanted to do Tango & Cash! …Jason plays Arthur larger-than-life; Patrick plays the straight man. It’s not unlike what Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones did in Men In Black – like Tommy, Patrick plays it dry, but very funny.”
It has also been said that this movie is entirely stand-alone as far as it can be, so is not impacted by the end of the DCEU. So expect something light on cameos, links, and nods to other DCEU entries. The DCEU is dead.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II returns as Black Manta, with Randall Park as Stephen Shin. New joiners include Jani Zhao as Stingray, Indya Moore as Karshon, Vincent Regan as Atlan, and Pilou Asbaek in an unknown role.
Remember, the first Aquaman is still the biggest-grossing movie in the DCEU by some distance. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom opens in cinemas on December 25th for people who really hate their families.
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