James Wan Is Making Sure to Keep ‘Aquaman’ Different From Superman

It's pretty clear at this point that DC's upcoming Aquaman movie is going to be vastly different from any and all of its predecessors. Much of these differences come from the imaginative mind of director James Wan, who said he went out of his way to make his titular hero stand out amongst other DC characters, especially the ever-popular Man of Steel himself, Superman.

For most people, Superman is the end-all-be-all superhero character. He's indestructible, incredibly strong, and contains a heart of absolute gold. Superman has long been the standard, and it would be easy for any director of a superhero film to make their lead character seem a lot like him.

This isn't what Wan wanted to do, even though Aquaman and Superman share a couple of similar powers and abilities.

While attending a visit to the set of Aquaman, ComicBook.com had a chance to hear Wan speak about the difference between the two popular heroes.

"Well, I think firstly one thing I've been very cautious about doing is making sure that he isn't Superman," Wan explained. "From a story standpoint there's a reason why Aquaman ultimately is powerful. He's strong because, like most Atlanteans, their bodies are built to withstand thousands of pounds of pressure, they live so far down. So when they come up, their body is... they're not aliens from another planet, but because of the physics of our planet and all that stuff, when they come up to the surface world their body can withstand really strong pressure. And so where bullets literally bounce off the Man of Steel, bullets can graze these guys and maybe break the skin, and break the flesh, but it doesn't necessarily penetrate because they their muscle mass and their body mass is much more dense. Even within the world of superheroes I try to find a reason for why how he is the way he is. So he can get beaten up. When he goes up, surface world weapons may have a hard time taking him down, but Atlantian technology can cripple him for sure. It can really destroy him."

Aquaman is going to be a unique kind of hero in his solo movie later this year, and it doesn't seem like any fans are going to be disappointed about that.

Are you excited to see Aquaman's solo movie? Let us know by dropping a line in the comments below!

Aquaman is set to hit theaters on December 21, and the first trailer is going to arrive this weekend during DC and WB's Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con.