The truth about Aquaman 2 and its confusing production: James Wan tells it all

The director responds to rumors about the numerous last-minute reshoots and the reduced role of Amber Heard.

It is today that DC and Warner Bros. will deliver the big official trailer forAquaman and the Lost Kingdomtwo years after the start of a very complicated shoot, for many different reasons, from reshuffles within the DCUniverse to lengthy post-production and the rants of the female star, Amber Heard.

Entertainment Weekly takes stock with James Wan and the director wants to dot the “i”, by delivering his truth.

He first explains: “At the beginning, the tricky thing was knowing if Aquaman so release before or after The Flash. So we had to be prepared for both options. Ultimately, the best thing about this movie, in my opinion, is that it has no connection to any of the other DC films and that’s crucial.”

James Wan still had to deal with the arrival of James Gunn and Peter Safran at the top of DC Studios, in the middle of production. If the filmmaker refuses to reveal anything concrete about the supposed presence of Batman or otherwise in his film, he admits that Gunn has “weighed” on Aquaman 2, while tempering:“I’ve known James Gunn for a long time. You know that right? We’re two guys who come from horror films. So I’m totally open to ideas. Even if at the end of the day, it’s my film!”

As for post-production and late reshoots, James Wan minimizes and assures that this is just linked to agenda stories: “We have great actors in this film and everyone’s schedule is busy. So we had to divide our filming schedule into different sections. We filmed a little here and there, because this actor was available, and then we filmed with another… Did we do a whole bunch of different shoots? No. If we combined them all together, it actually wouldn’t take many days.”

Finally, the director responds to criticism of Mera’s place in The Lost Kingdom. He explains thatAmber Heard was not degraded because of her media trial with Johnny Depp. He confides thatAquaman 2 has always wanted to focus on Aquaman’s relationship with his evil half-brother, Orm (Patrick Wilson), more than on his relationship with Mera: “I pitched that up front to everyone. The first movie was Arthur and Mera’s journey. The second movie was always Arthur and Orm’s journey. Aquaman was a romantic action-adventure film, Aquaman 2 will be an action-adventure bromance film. We won’t say any more.”

Released on December 20 in cinemas.