James Wan Explains Why ‘Aquaman’ Had to Happen Before Aqualad

With the introduction of Aquaman to the big screen, fans are already clamoring for his pal Aqualad to earn his place in the movies. Aquaman director James Wan never saw the companion playing a role in his upcoming movie, though he does see a place for the character in movies down the line.

“I think I remember someone asking me this awhile ago, and asking me if there will be Aqualad in my Aquaman movie,” Wan told Comicbook.com. “I said, ‘Well, you know, I used the Batman analogy: Let me get Batman right first before we introduce Robin.”

With Aquaman, Wan did just that. A very original version of Aquaman (helped both by the fact that he’s never had his own movie before but also by the swagger and attitude Wan and Jason Momoa brought the film) is earning a good bit of praise from critics and taking in large hauls at the international box office.

“I still feel that way,” Wan said of an Aqualad introduction. “I mean, listen, again, the character is very popular in the canon of Aquaman, in the comic book canon, right? And so who knows.” Of course, Wan is also minding his words carefully, seeing as a recent comment regarding an R-rated Batman film was apparently taken out of proportion and framed as though he was eager to make a film with the Caped Crusader. “I know. I have to be cautious. Brandon, I’m trying to keep my answers as vague as I possibly can so that I can say if anyone quotes me on something, I can say ‘I didn’t exactly say that,’” Wan laughed.

Wan is not currently signed on for a sequel to Aquaman but could possibly be convinced to do more movies in the world he creates.

“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.”

Aquaman hits theaters on December 21, 2018.