At the DC Fandome virtual panel today, director James Wan teased a new direction with Aquaman 2. Though Wan wants to further develop the stories of Aquaman‘s characters, he yearned to do something fresh and exciting with the second installment.
“I think the second one is a little bit more serious, a little bit more relevant in the world we are living in today. I think that’s where it wants to go,” said Wan.
Patrick Wilson, who plays Orm Marius, told Wan he’d like to see new worlds for Aquaman 2. Wilson commented, “I know [Wan] loves world-building and I’d like to see some of that. I know you’re going to push that ocean. There’s a lot of unexplored ocean!”
Wan assured there will be new worlds and that Wilson should stay excited. Wan said, “I can definitely guarantee you new worlds in this next one and I think you’re going to be very excited as an actor.”
Aquaman 2 is slated for a December 2022 release.
Earlier this month, Deadline reported that Warner Bros tapped frequent James Wan collaborator David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick to pen the sequel. Johnson-McGoldrick co-wrote Aquaman with Will Beall. James Wan and Peter Safran are producing.
Aquaman has grossed $1.1 billion worldwide, becoming the highest grossing DC film of all-time for WB, beating The Dark Knight Rises ($1.08B). Close to $333M of that figure was minted in the U.S. and Canada.