Director James Wan recently agreed with a DC fan that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom dropping a trailer for its own trailer was “hilarious.”
Wan acknowledged the funny side of the Aquaman sequel releasing a promo to hype another, longer promo in an exchange with a DC Universe devotee on Instagram. “lol is this a fucking trailer for a trailer?” wrote the fan, to which Wan replied, “i know, it’s hilarious.” However, it’s worth noting that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is hardly the first Hollywood blockbuster to circulate a pre-trailer teaser, as the practice is at least a decade old.
Fans didn’t have long to wait for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s full-length trailer to arrive, either. The hotly-anticipated preview went live days after its teaser, giving fans their best look yet at what’s in store for them in the second solo Aquaman outing. Among the trailer’s highlights are scenes depicting the dynamic between Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and his villainous half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), who are forced into an uneasy alliance by evil machinations of Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). It also spotlights the return of several other Aquaman supporting characters, including Tom Curry (Temuera Morrison), Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), and Mera (Amber Heard).
James Wan Teases a Possible Aquaman 2 Sequel
Wan discussed aspects of the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom trailer at a press event held to coincide with its release, zeroing in on Black Manta’s role in particular. According to Wan, some of the Aquaman follow-up’s Black Manta material was culled from the screenplay for the supervillain’s scrapped spinoff, Trench. “Initially, we announced it as a Trench movie,” the director explained. “But ultimately, we wanted to surprise the fans because that was going to be a standalone Black Manta movie. And so when that didn’t happen, some of those ideas kind of found their way into [Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom].”
While Wan has seemingly given up hope that the abandoned Black Manta side project will earn a second lease on life, he’s much more optimistic about the prospect of a third Aquaman installment. Wan talked up the possibility of Aquaman 3 happening in a recent interview, hinting at how Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom sets up another sequel. “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,” he said.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom arrives in theaters on Dec. 20, 2023.
Source: Instagram, via THR