WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
With Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, DC's extended universe just got a whole lot bigger. Those who have already seen the film will have gotten a brief glimpse of the Flash, Cyborg, and Jason Mamoa's Aquaman in action. For me, the Aquaman mini-trailer made for a very underwhelming introduction - Mamoa literally posed for the camera for 20 seconds - but I am still excited for the King of Atlantis' solo outing.
That film will be directed by James Wan, and while he was at WonderCon (via Slashfilm) he spoke about his plans for Aquaman's world: "Isn’t it crazy to think that we’ve explored space more than we have explored the depths of our ocean? That just fires up my imagination about potential sea monsters and cool creatures, that kind of stuff."
A separate interview with IGN reveals that Wan is looking forward to surprising people with his treatment of the title character; "I think Aquaman is a character that is, you know, a lot of people have made fun of over the years, and I just think it’s fun to actually show a really different, cool, badass side to this character, but at the same time, let’s not forget to have fun with it."
Although Wan will be given plenty of room to make the film his own, Aquaman is still a part of DC's cinematic universe. "I think the story that I would like to tell is still at the end of the day my story", Wan told Cinema Blend. "And that’s what’s cool with Zack [Snyder], is that he’s actually very respectful of that. He’s actually helping me out in some ways with certain things that he’s doing with his [films] so that I can have better groundwork with the standalone Aquaman story."
It's going to be really interesting to see what tone and aesthetic Wan ultimately goes for with Aquaman. It's clear that Snyder prefers a darker take on DC's heroes, and while Wan has shown himself to be adept at horror, Furious 7 proved he can handle more lighthearted material too. While it's not necessarily a bad thing, a sense of fun is something that's generally missing from Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, and audiences would doubtless appreciate the joy that Wan looks to be promising with Aquaman.
Directed by Zack Snyder and starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Mamoa, Ezra Miller, and Ray Fisher, Justice League: Part 1 is currently scheduled for a November 17, 2017 release.
Images: Warner Bros.
