Aquaman Director James Wan Weighs in on Developing Abandoned The Trench Movie Plans Into New Movie

Few filmmakers have proven as ambitious or imaginative in recent decades as James Wan, who got his start in the horror world with franchises like Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring, while also able to make the jump seamlessly to big-budget blockbusters like Fast 7 and Aquaman. Despite his talents, some behind-the-scenes shifts saw the planned Aquaman spinoff The Trench be scrapped, which was set to be a horrifying interpretation of the DC Comics lore, and while that project might have been abandoned, Wan isn't ruling out some of those concepts being reimagined as another unsettling experience. Wan's latest film, Malignant, is out now on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.

"Listen, I feel like everything I come up with, everything I do, if I come up with something that I don't end up using, that doesn't mean that I cannot be inspired to use that in a different way," Wan shared with ComicBook.com when asked about reviving concepts from The Trench. "That's my problem, is I come up with a lot of ideas and I have so many ideas just percolating, but obviously, I can't use all of them. So I would say of all the different thoughts and ideas I've come up with, I end up using maybe 20-30% of them in my work, and so I do have a drawer full of ideas that could develop into something else."

While the DC Extended Universe has seen a number of successes, its underwhelming experiences are often attributed to the overall franchise lacking a cohesive vision for the series as a whole. Surely the original Aquaman was a major financial success, making a spinoff seem like an obvious hit, but The Trench was a casualty of studio Warner Bros. reimagining their overall approach to the franchise.

"As part of our DC slate, some legacy development titles including New Gods and The Trench will not be moving forward," Warner Bros. and DC said in a statement at the time. "We thank our partners Ava DuVernay, Tom King, James Wan, and Peter Safran for their time and collaboration during this process and look forward to our continued partnership with them on other DC stories. The projects will remain in their skillful hands if they were to move forward in the future."  

Likely making audiences even more disappointed about the project being scrapped is that Wan later confirmed that The Trench was secretly going to be a Black Manta movie.

Wan's latest is described, "Malignant is the latest creation from Conjuring universe architect James Wan (Aquaman, Furious 7). The film marks director Wan's return to his roots with this original horror thriller. In the film, Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities."

Stay tuned for details on the future of the DC Extended Universe. Malignant is out now on 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray.

Are you hoping Wan revives the abandoned spinoff? Let us know in the comments below!