‘Aquaman’ Sequel Moving Forward With Original Co-Writer

It seems the question of whether an Aquaman sequel is moving forward may have been answered with the original co-writer tapped to pen the script.

According to The Wrap, frequent James Wan collaborator David Leslie Johnson McGoldrick has signed on to write the script for the Aquaman sequel. Johnson McGoldrick co-wrote the script for Aquaman with Will Beall with that script based on a story by Geoff Johns.

It had previously been reported by THR that Warner Bros. had ordered a script for an Aquaman spinoffbased on The Trench characters, but that no movement had been made towards an Aquaman sequel, even though other Hollywood trades disagreed.

According to a report from Deadline in late January, the studio was said to be attempting to get Wan to return to the director’s chair for Aquaman 2, something that didn’t seem to be likely until a “seaworthy” script was found for the film. Wan had previously expressed some reservations about returning for a sequel right away in a previous interview with ComicBook.com, noting a desire to take on new challenges.

“I mean, liking the people I work with goes a long way,” Wan said. “That was the reason why I came back when I did Insidious 2. But it’s a weird one for me, because I actually don’t know what I want to do next for the first time in my career. I felt like Aquaman ticked a lot of boxes for me. I want to do another action movie after Furious 7, I wanted to do a world creation film, and I wanted to do a superhero movie, and Aquaman literally ticked all of those boxes for me. And so right now, I’m in that sort of place of like do I kind of go back and do a smaller movie maybe as my next one, something a bit more intimate. Or if I can do a personal movie, but maybe it’s on a bigger scale. I’m not sure at this point.”

With Johnson McGoldrick returning to write the sequel, it feels a bit more likely that Wan himself may also sign on. As is, Wan and Peter Safran are set to produce Aquaman 2. As for ideas for Aquaman 2, if Johnson McGoldrick needs any ideas, star Jason Momoa already has ideas.

“I definitely have an opinion,” Momoa told Syfy Wire. “Even when we were shooting Aquaman, I have the opening of Aquaman 2 ready. I went in and pitched it to [producer Peter] Safran, and I pitched it to [Warner Bros. chairman] Toby Emmerich. They loved it. It’s awesome…But yeah, I have plans for Aquaman 2.”

Aquaman is currently DC’s biggest movie to date, having passed $1.10 billion at the worldwide box office, overtaking The Dark Knight Rises which previously held the distinction.

Aquaman is now in theaters. Other upcoming DC films include Shazam! on April 5th, Joker on October 4th, Birds of Prey on February 7th, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5th, 2020, and The Batman on June 25th, 2021.