James Wan Reveals That the AQUAMAN Spinoff Film THE TRENCH Was Actually a Secret Black Manta Movie

A few years ago it was announced that director James Wan was developing an Aquaman spinoff movie titled The Trench. That project as since been cancelled. It was initially reported that the film would have “a horror-tinged script centered on the Trench, the deadly amphibious creatures seen attacking the hero and his love, Mera, in Aquaman.”

Well, Wan recently revealed in response to a fan on Instagram that the movie was actually secret project that was going to focus on Yahya Abdul-Mateen’s Black Manta! The filmmaker said:

"I'll let you in on a secret, the canceled Trench spin-off movie was really going to be a secret Black Manta movie.”

I’ll be honest, while I like Black Manta, a movie focusing on The Trench is way more interesting to me. At this point, it doesn’t matter, though, because this spinoff that was being developed is not longer happening. When previously talking about the project, Wan said:

"We, you know, we're still deep in sort of crafting the script, crafting the story right now so I don't want to get into that too much, but definitely it's one that I really want to lean into the horror of it, so it's going to play more as a monster horror movie then it will as a superhero film, but it's still definitely part of the Aquaman world.”

Would you have liked to see a Black Manta spinoff film?