Aquaman 2 Won't Be James Wan's Next Movie

In spite of a studio high on Aquaman enough to greenlight not only a second one but a horror spinoff based on the characters in The Trench, filmmaker James Wan has other commitments to fulfill before beginning production on the seafaring sequel. While there were rumors that The Trench might be produced before Aquaman 2, most fans had hoped and expected that Wan's attention would be alrgely focused on the world of Aquaman once Annabelle Comes Home wrapped its press tour. Instead, during an interview in support of that movie, Wan teased a mystery project coming up that will likely be the next thing he films.

There has been little in the way of clear information about the sequel, which will follow DC's highest-grossing film of all time at the box global box office. The expectation is that Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) will return, and some rumors have suggested that The Others, a group of elite Atlantean metahumans, will play a role in the story. One of The Others was briefly rumored to be making an appearance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

"It won't be Aquaman 2 just yet," Wan told CinemaBlend (as seen in the video below), adding, "I have something else I'm cooking up; I'm not ready to share just yet."

Wan was previously bullish on returning for a sequel right away, according to a previous interview with ComicBook.com. The filmmaker expressed his desire to tackle new challenges, having made entries and started his own established franchises like Saw, Insidious, the Conjuring, and Fast & Furious.

"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 2 is slated for December 16, 2022. Upcoming DC films include Joker on October 10, 2019, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)on February 7, 2020, and Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020. Shazam! will be available on streaming video on demand services, DVD, and Blu-ray in July.