'Aquaman' Director Explains Why the Justice League Didn't Cameo

In Warner Bros. and DC Comics' latest film Aquaman, Arthur Curry has to defend the surface world from the threat of his brother and the militant forces of Atlantis.

It's a tall task, and one that have potentially devastating results for the surface world and the population across the globe. So why didn't Aquaman get help from his friends in the Justice League? Director James Wan addressed this exact question while speaking with Huffington Post.

"I just feel like this is his stand-alone movie, just let it be about Aquaman," Wan said. "I feel like all the other characters have had so many movies; audiences have known all the other characters in all the other movies, all these different projects. Let this be Aquaman's time in the spotlight."

The director has a point, as Aquaman finally getting his chance to shine has seemingly made for a better movie (just look at the box office numbers for proof), but fans still have more questions about how this movie fits into the shared universe.

In Justice League, Aquaman travels to Atlantis in hopes of preventing Steppenwolf from securing one of the three Mother Boxes hidden on Earth. But Wan explained that this wasn't a problem, as he discussed with director Zack Snyder.

"So when he told me that was his idea," Wan says. "I was like, 'Oh great, then I can actually have Arthur go to Atlantis for the first time.' That's very important for me, because he can go into it and have a wide-eyed approach to Atlantis and be in awe of it. I think that's very important from a storytelling standpoint because the audience gets to experience Atlantis for the first time along with the character."

The director went on to compare Arthur's arrival to a pivotal scene in Jurassic Park, taking a major cue from Steven Spielberg.

"It wouldn't be the same if Arthur goes to Atlantis and he's been here before and he's kind of jaded about it," Wan said. "There's nothing impressing him. Then you as an audience watching would not be impressed either. It's that Spielberg approach, right?

"Seeing a character seeing something for the first time ― like in Jurassic Park when Laura Dern sees the dinosaur for the first time. The camera is pushing in on her look of awe and wonderment. That's how you convey it to the audience and that's how the audience comes along with the characters."

Aquaman is now playing in theaters everywhere.