James Wan Addresses the Possibility of ‘Aquaman’ Cinematic Universe

With Aquaman earning over a billion dollars at the box office, fans are eager to see what sides of the seven seas are explored next, and it looks like director James Wan has some feelings about that.

Wan recently took to address the possibility of an “Aquaman Cinematic Universe”, now that a spinoff for The Trench is in early stages of development. As Wan explained, his work on the original film wasn’t necessarily intending to set up spinoffs, but he thinks there are more “adventures” to explore within the film’s world.

As with his previous tweet about the Trench spinoff, Wan was coy as to whether or not the film is actually getting made. But between that project beginning to be a possibility, and Aquaman 2 seeming to move forward, it’s safe to say that moviegoers will be returning to the DC Extended Universe’s version of Atlantis in one way or another.

While Wan was previously dubbed “likely” to return to direct the second film, it sounds like fans will just have to wait and see exactly what’s in store for the franchise.

“I mean, liking the people I work with goes a long way,” Wan told ComicBook.com late last year. “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.” Wan continued. “Or if I can do a personal movie, but maybe it’s on a bigger scale. I’m not sure at this point.”

“I definitely have an opinion,” Jason Momoa, who starred as the film’s titular character, said last October. “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 in theaters now. Upcoming DC films include Shazam on April 5th, Joker on October 10th, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, The Batman on June 25, 2021, and The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021.