Will James Wan Direct Aquaman 3 in the DCU?

The DC universe has weathered a tumultuous sea of changes since James Wan's Aquaman swam into theaters in 2018. DC's highest-grossing film released at a time when Walter Hamada was president and executive producer of DC Films, and the post-Justice League future of the DC Extended Universe was to be anchored by Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Batman (Ben Affleck), and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot). Hamada exited the company in October 2022 with the release of Dwayne Johnson vehicle Black Adam, the first in a string of flops that includes 2023 DC movies Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and Blue Beetle.

But DC's box office misfortunes could soon change when Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom surfaces in theaters on December 20th. Wan returned to direct the sequel to the $1.148 billion-grossing Aquaman, which is expected to be the final installment of the DCEU that launched with Zack Snyder's Man of Steel in 2013. The recently formed DC Studios — headed by co-chairmen James Gunn and Aquaman and Aquaman 2 producer Peter Safran — is rebooting and will move forward as the newly unified DC Universe.

Whether or not Momoa's Arthur Curry has a future in Gunn and Safran's DCU that will officially launch with Superman: Legacy in 2025, Wan insists his Aquaman sequel is standalone — and it's no lame duck. According to Wan, the looming end of the DCEU and the beginning of the DCU has no bearing on a potential Aquaman 3.

"The beauty of this movie, this Aquaman world, is that, very early on, we always said that we are our own separate universe. My goal was always: If we could spin off a Seven Kingdoms universe, that would be my ideal dream. So, what we do, ultimately, doesn't get affected by all that stuff, all that noise," Wan told Entertainment Weekly, referring to the dramatic changes that have happened since Aquaman 2 started filming back in June 2021. 

Wan downplayed reports that Warner Bros. opened its wallet for multiple rounds of reshoots after "non-stop" test screenings fared poorly with audiences — there weren't multiple reshoots, according to Wan, but one shooting schedule broken up to accomodate its starry cast — but didn't dispute THR's report that Gunn "weighed in" on a recent cut.

"I've known James since way back, right?" Wan said. "We're horror guys, and so I'm definitely open to ideas. But, at the end of the day, this is my movie."

Whereas the first Aquaman explored the romance between Arthur and Mera (Amber Heard), the sequel shifts focus to Arthur and his fragile truce with his brother and dethroned Atlantis king Orm (Patrick Wilson) to stop the Black Trident-wielding Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). While Wan hasn't committed to returning for an Aquaman 3, the director noted that the movie sets up a potential threequel.

"What I like between this one and the first one is, you really do see the growth of Arthur," Wan said. "He starts off as this kind of wanderer, and in the second one he finally has more of a direction of what he wants to do with his life. If and when there is a third one, that's what it should be; it should be growing these characters because I think we've set up certain things in a good place in the second movie that you can definitely draw upon in a third. I don't have any stories, but growing the characters is the biggest thing that I think the next Aquaman movie should be about."

Gunn and Safran have said that, while DC Studios projects will unite the DCU across films, television, and video games, Elseworlds titles — like Joker 2 and The Batman II — will continue to exist as part of the wider DC multiverse. Aquaman 3 might surface, but will Wan return? "I don't know," he said. "This film has taken up so, so much of my life, so much of my time, all I can think about now is taking a long break."

DC's Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom opens only in theaters December 20th.