Sequel To Blockbuster "Aquaman" Officially In Development

According to Warner Bros, Aquaman 2 is officially in development. Aquaman, which hit the cinemas in December 2018, has become the DC Universe’s highest-earning movie after collecting over 1 billion dollars at the worldwide box office.

It is said that the studio is recently convincing James Wan, who is also the first movie’s director, to return to the director's chair for the sequel. However, James Wan will not reportedly sign on this project until he sees a great script.

According to Deadline's reports, Aquaman’s global box office receipts stand at 1.07 billion dollars, only 17 million dollars shy of the 2012 final instalment of Batman trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan.

When Jason Momoa’s amphibious epic exceeds Christian Bale’s caped crusader, this will open one new era in DC Universe. Once dominated by Gotham City, Atlantis underwater kingdom is ready to become Warner Bros franchise’s unofficial capital.

Before The Dark Knight Rises, the top-grossing DC adaptation was 2008 The Dark Knight and before it was the blockbuster 1989 Batman helmed by director Tim Burton. Therefore, it has been a long time since Gotham wasn’t a capital of crime in DC Universe.

It is no surprise when the studio is fond of bringing James Wan back to direct the sequel because he’s the only filmmaker who has made billion-dollar films for 2 different studios. Along with Aquaman, his Furious 7 also earned 2,5 billion dollars for Universal in 2016.

While it is said that James Wan is "overseeing" the development of the second film, he is still expected to be back in the director's chair for the sequel since the director deeply invested in the character and underwater world. He sees the deep, blue sea as a fantasy setting that can be compared with the wizarding world of Harry Potter, the Jedi Galaxy or Middle-earth.

Amber Heard, who plays Princess Mera in Aquaman, is also keen on returning to the film. The beautiful actress expressed, “We allow the hyper-masculine image on the outside to be countered with emotional and sensitivity depth. We are not only challenging female representation, but we are also challenging male representation, and I think both need to be addressed. For the sequel, I would like to see more of that. Now that we have allowed for her to have strength, I would like to allow for her to have some flaws some weirdness,  some weakness in a way that isn’t the typical damsel weakness.”

Aquaman tells the story of Arthur Curry (played by Jason Momoa) as he is forced to reconcile his loyalties to the surface world with his role in the undersea kingdom of Atlantis, which has become increasingly hostile to humans polluting the oceans. The film also stars Nicole Kidman, Patrick Wilson, Temuera Morrison, Willem Dafoe and Dolph Lundgren. The release date for Aquaman 2 has yet to be revealed.