James Wan’s Aquaman wasn’t afraid to embrace the more surreal aspects of the character and his Atlantean home, though there was one scene that he axed for being too bloody and too out there.
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Aquaman doesn’t shy away from action and it does have a few darker parts (especially in regards to the Trench), but there was one sequence that just proved too much for Wan. The director revealed the scene after a recent screening of Aquaman, describing a scene that involved shark-guards, a riot, and plenty of blood.
“He had a really quirky out-there [sequence]…it wasn’t the studio, it was me that said, ‘I don’t know if we can have that in there, that’s a bit weird’, Wan told Collider. “As much as I loved it. He had this sequence where…Aquaman has been apprehended by King Orm and he’s been thrown into this dungeon. Like this really awful prison deep in Atlantis. He ends up starting a prison riot, where all the guards are sharks. They were shark-guards, like all shark head…and he kills one of the shark guards and the shark starts bleeding and then that starts a feeding frenzy among all the other shark guards. It just went nuts. We’re talking like clouds of blood billowing everywhere and he uses that to escape. I was like “Holy crap, I don’t know if I can do that.”
While some scenes certainly were intense, this sequence would have felt a bit much when in context with everything else. We would love to see the scene mind you, but we have to agree with the decision to leave this out of the final cut. Who knows though, maybe we will get another version of it down the line.
Speaking of a possible sequel, Wan isn’t actually signed on for one at the moment, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have ideas.
“I definitely have an opinion,” Momoa told Total Film. “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 directed by James Wan and stars Jason Momoa (Arthur/Aquaman), Amber Heard (Mera), Nicole Kidman (Queen Atlanna), Patrick Wilson (Orm/Ocean Master), Willem Dafoe (Nuidis Vulko), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), Ludi Lin (Murk), Dolph Lundgren (King Nereus), Djimon Hounsou (The Fisherman King), Natalia Safran (Fisherman Queen), and Michael Beach (Jesse Kane).
Aquaman lands in theaters on Friday, Dec. 21st, 2018.
