Aquaman Director Explains Why All That Water Is Making Filming More Difficult

08/10/2017 04:30 pm EDT

It turns out Black Manta isn't proving to be Aquaman's greatest foe in his solo movie. Surprisingly, that honor goes to the thing that powers him;, water.

The very thing that makes Aquaman different is turning out to be a sort of headache for the crew, at least according to director James Wan. Wan spoke to THR about the challenges that bringing an underwater world to the big screen unearths.

"It's a very technically challenging shoot to be on," said Wan. "Working with water, and even the dry-for-wet sequences are very complex. … Our equivalent of two people sitting around chatting in the underwater world is super complicated. You have to think about CG with the hair, and how their clothing moves, how are they floating, what kind of rig we put them on and all that stuff. "

Now, some of the difficulty is self-inflicted, as Wan likes to use real actors as much as possible, keeping the all CGI process to a minimum. "That just makes it very difficult and time-sucking and time-challenging to do all of this," he continued. "So it's not an easy shoot — but hopefully it will pay off in spades down the line."

Fans have already seen Aquaman in action in the Justice League trailer, along with a snippet of Mera. Her one sequence does show her underwater, and Aquaman will be featured under the sea as well. Those will pale in sheer size through to the extensive work on Aquaman's solo film, but fans have no doubt it will be worth the wait.

Aquaman currently enjoys a 3.89 out of 5 on ComicBook.com's anticipation rankings, while Justice League holds a 4.20 out of 5. The description for Justice League can be found below.

In Justice League, fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

Justice League hits theaters on November 17, 2017, while Aquaman lands in theaters on July 27, 2018.

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