Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Delayed Again…But Just a Tiny Bit

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which has been moved around Warner Bros.’ schedule so often it has become a social media meme, has been delayed one (presumably) final time. Now, instead of opening on Wednesday, December 20, the movie will debut on December 22 — giving it a normal, 3-day opening weekend. No big releases are debuting on December 20 or December 22, so it seems the most significant impact of this will be to give Wonka, out December 15 and also a big Warner Bros. movie, a little bit more room to breathe.

The delay comes as the press cycle for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is starting to really ramp up, with a recent cover story on Empire magazine. That feature, which included an interview with director James Wan, was aimed in part at combating the narrative that the production has been troubled.

Recent reports suggested that the movie has struggled with test audiences, that they have had to do numerous rounds of reshoots, and that conflicts between stars Jason Momoa and Amber Heard made for a pretty toxic working environment. Wan rejects all of that, saying that he struggles not to publicly correct bad reporting.

“I’ve had to learn to be more Zen in dealing with all the noise around me, for sure,” James Wan told Empire magazine. “I’m a pretty private person. I don’t get on social media and have fights, but it’s difficult because this narrative has emerged that is not the reality. The noise is fun to write about, and it gets clicks, but people don’t know the truth.”

During the course of making Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, DC has been in a state of seemingly-constant chaos. Halfway through, James Gunn and Peter Safran took over the studio, and started charting out a new direction for the brand as a whole. According to Wan, though, none of that really impacted Aquaman in the way some have claimed. 

Having failed to defeat Aquaman the first time, Black Manta, still driven by the need to avenge his father’s death, will stop at nothing to take Aquaman down once and for all. This time Black Manta is more formidable than ever before, wielding the power of the mythic Black Trident, which unleashes an ancient and malevolent force. To defeat him, Aquaman will turn to his imprisoned brother Orm, the former King of Atlantis, to forge an unlikely alliance. Together, they must set aside their differences in order to protect their kingdom and save Aquaman’s family, and the world, from irreversible destruction.

“We probably did seven or eight days [of reshoots,” Wan said, “which is nothing for a movie of this size. It was just spread out because it’s so hard to get your actors back once you’ve finished the initial shoot.” 

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be in theaters on December 22.