James Wan Says He Wants to Create an AQUAMAN Cinematic Universe and Explore the Seven Kingdoms in That World

James Wan is about to reveal his second Aquaman film, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. While the director knows that he will have to wait and see how the film does in the box office, and the future of the franchise will also depend on the plans made by DC heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, Wan is still dreaming up what he’d like to see happen next.

At an exclusive trailer-reveal event for the upcoming second movie in LA attended by GamesRadar, the filmmaker touched on his hope of one day turning the series into a cinematic universe, which'd take viewers to all corners of Atlantis.

"The Jason Momoa story as Aquaman definitely has more places to go. The world building is very important. We enjoy all the different worlds that no other superhero movies go into. That's what's so cool about the Aquaman films, it's really standalone. It lives in its own universe.”

He went on: 

"My dream would be to create a Seven Kingdoms cinematic universe and visit all the different worlds that we touch on with these two films. Like the first movie, this one leans into the Ray Harryhausen spirit even more," he continued. "There are shades of Jules Verne in this as well. As you can see in the trailer, I'm aesthetically leaning pretty heavily into the 1960s Silver Age comic book of Aquaman, so a lot of the designs in this film have a very retro feeling. The spirit and the tone is very retro. It is a little bit darker than the first movie, as second movies tend to be, which felt like the correct progression for this film."

I guess we will just have to wait and see how this next movie turns out. The first one was fun, but I’m not sure it warranted a whole slew of sequels. I have a feeling we will know more definitively whether we want more Aquaman once this next movie is released.

Jason Momoa stars as Aquaman in the movie and he’s joined by Patrick Wilson as Orm, Amber Heard as Mera, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, Nicole Kidman as Atlanna, Dolph Lundgren as King Nereus and Randall Park as Dr. Stephen Shin.

Warner Bros. will release the film in theaters on December 20th.