Aquaman 2 Director Hints at Reason For Release Date Delay

The world of DC blockbusters got some major updates earlier this week, when it was revealed that DC League of Super-Pets, Black Adam, The Flash, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and Shazam! Fury of the Gods would all be changing release dates. For the Aquaman sequel, this means a move from December 16, 2022 to March 17, 2023, a move that is reportedly a result of the extensive visual effects work that goes into the film. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom director James Wan essentially confirmed as much while addressing the news in a social media post, revealing via Facebook comment that he would not have been able to make the initial December release date, especially as filming on the project just wrapped a few months ago.

Luckily, it does sound like Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be more than worth the wait, based on comments that one of the franchise's stars, Patrick Wilson, made to ComicBook.com earlier this year.

"The movie's gonna be a blast," Patrick explained. "We had such a great time shooting it, I will absolutely say that. And the tone, I think he took the tone in those moments in the first one that we enjoyed, and that kind of went beyond the comic book world in that they were much more really appealing to a wider audience, and we embraced that. I think we embraced the tone much more in this movie, we established what James established, what he wanted to do with the first one, it was clearly successful, and it's like, 'Okay, so now let's just push it.' So every little fun moment, every goofy moment, every heartfelt moment, every action moment, some of the set pieces are unbelievable, the stunts were crazy, fighting sequences are crazy, just awesome."

In Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, when an ancient power is unleashed, Aquaman must forge an uneasy alliance with an unlikely ally to protect Atlantis, and the world, from irreversible devastation. The film will see the return of Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Patrick Wilson as Orm, Amber Heard as Mera, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, and Randall Park as Stephen Shin. Game of Thrones alum Pilou Asbaek has also joined the cast in an unknown role, while Jani Zhao will play new character Stingray, Indya Mooree will play Karshon, and Vincent Regan will play Atlan, who was previously portrayed by Graham McTavish in Aquaman.

"After we ended the first one I went in with my writing partner and we dreamed up the second one and we went in and pitched the idea," Momoa previously said on The Drew Barrymore Show. "The best thing I can give you is that I love it so much that I participated in the writing of it. And so, we did the first treatment and then James and our original writer David finished it off. And all of our hearts are in it. Instead of just like getting a script and doing that, you are 100% being encouraged by your director and co-writers. So that's exciting for me and I'm excited to go over there. I leave in July and we start filming."

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom now arrives in theaters on March 17, 2023.