We Are Finally Seeing Some Actual Marketing For 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom'

By Brian Richards | DC Movies | September 14, 2023 |

By Brian Richards | DC Movies | September 14, 2023 |

If you’re someone who has completely forgotten that we are getting an Aquaman sequel in theaters this year, this is very understandable. If you’re someone who didn’t even know that we are getting an Aquaman sequel this year, or that it’s going to drop in theaters a couple of months from now? All because there has been little to no marketing for this sequel at all?! Well…that’s even more understandable.

This past Sunday saw the release of teaser footage on Twitter informing the world that we would finally get a trailer this week for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. A trailer that wasn’t attached to screenings of Barbie, one of the most popular films of the year, and a billion-dollar hit for Warner Bros. Or with screenings of The Flash or Blue Beetle, two DC superhero films released in theaters this past summer. Either way, the wait is over, so feel free to press PLAY on the trailer below.

The film’s official synopsis:

Having failed to defeat Aquaman the first time, Black Manta, still driven by the need to avenge his father’s death, will stop at nothing to take Aquaman down once and for all. This time, Black Manta is more formidable than ever before, wielding the power of the mythic Black Trident, which unleashes an ancient and malevolent force. To defeat him, Aquaman will turn to his imprisoned brother Orm, the former King of Atlantis, to forge an unlikely alliance. Together, they must set aside their differences in order to protect their kingdom and save Aquaman’s family, and the world, from irreversible destruction.

Aquaman opened in theaters in December of 2018, and despite the fact that it was released at the same time as Mary Poppins Returns, Bumblebee, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it defied all expectations by not only making a billion dollars at the box office, but it also made Aquaman — the superhero known as a laughingstock who could talk to fish and ride them into battle like Ben-Hur — into an absolute badass, and the decision to cast Jason Momoa in the role played a large part in making that happen. (He made his debut as Aquaman with a brief cameo appearance in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, followed by a more substantial role in Joss Whedon’s theatrical version of Justice League, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League.)

The film ended with Aquaman defeating his half-brother, Orm (Patrick Wilson) in combat, saving the surface world from destruction, and claiming his rightful place as King of the Seven Seas. So naturally, there was expected to be a sequel telling a whole new story with Aquaman as king, with his girlfriend, Mera (Amber Heard) by his side, as he faces new enemies and goes on new adventures. And when Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was announced as that sequel, with Aquaman director James Wan helming this film as well, all that would be left for us to do was wait for its release in theaters, right?

Well, that was all before it was suddenly announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would be the CEOs of DC Studios for Warner Bros. Discovery, and that they were in charge of the new and upcoming DCU, crafting a whole new slate of movies and television shows for DC fans to look forward to that would be a reboot of what we’ve seen in the DCEU. Once that announcement was made, informing fans that the DCEU that started with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel was officially coming to an end, some of those fans began to wonder why they should even care about spending their time and money to watch Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, or The Flash, or even Blue Beetle, the last three films of the DCEU? Especially when Warner Bros. Discovery just told the world that these films would soon cease to matter or exist, and would be replaced almost entirely with a new version of the DC cinematic universe overseen by a director who many of them don’t like or support.

As for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom? It was initially intended to be released on December 16, 2022 before that release date was changed to March 17, 2023 so that visual effects houses would have more time to work on the film. And those weren’t the only news stories published about the film during its post-production. There were articles about expensive reshoots, Michael Keaton’s cameo as Batman/Bruce Wayne being removed from the film, Ben Affleck revealed to be making a surprise cameo as Batman/Bruce Wayne when he was spotted on the Warner Bros. lot with Momoa (a surprise cameo that is now also rumored to be removed from the film, since it would promise more of a cinematic universe that will soon no longer exist), and incredibly negative test screenings claiming that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is one of the worst DC movies ever made.

And of course, one of the biggest topics of discussion about Aquaman 2 is Amber Heard. During the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial last year, Heard testified that her role as Mera was decreased in the script for the sequel, to the point where she would have no more than ten minutes of screen time, compared to how large her role was in the first film. Walter Hamada, the former head of DC Films for Warner Bros. testified that Heard’s brief amount of screen time in Aquaman 2 was due to lack of chemistry between her and Momoa, that it had nothing to do with any allegations of abuse made towards her by Depp, and that the sequel was always meant to be more focused on the relationship between Arthur and Orm, compared to how Aquaman was about the growing romance between Arthur and Mera.

Yesterday, before the trailer’s premiere, Wan spoke to Entertainment Weekly about all things Aquaman 2, including the negative press that has shadowed the film during these last few months.

About the reshoots:

…Wan insists, correctly, that such additional photography has become a routine part of producing big-budget movies and that he directed a comparatively small amount of new material after the main shoot. He clarifies of the situation, “We have big actors in this movie, and everyone’s schedule is really hard. So, we had to break up our shooting schedule into sections. We’ll shoot a bit here now, because this actor’s available, and then we’ll do another shoot now, because this guy’s available. People are like, ‘Oh, they’re doing a whole bunch of different shoots!’ No. If we actually combined them all together, it’s actually not that many number of days at all.”

The rumored cameo appearances by Keaton and Affleck:

“The tricky thing early on was not knowing whether Aquaman would come out first or come out after [The Flash]. So, we just had to be prepared. At the end of the day, the best thing I would say about this movie is that it is not connected in any way to any of those films. That’s the bottom line.” (Affleck, Keaton, and Momoa all had appearances in The Flash, which debuted in theaters this past June.) So, Batman does not appear in Aquaman 2? “That’s a ‘no comment,’ right now,” the director says. “You’re going to have to wait for the movie to come out.”

Amber Heard having her role as Mera reduced in Aquaman 2:

…Wan insists that he always intended the focus of the second movie to be the relationship between Arthur and Orm and not between Arthur and his paramour Mera, as was the case in the 2018 film. The director recalls, “I always pitched this to everyone from the get-go. The first Aquaman was Arthur and Mera’s journey. The second movie was always going to be Arthur and Orm. So, the first was a romance action-adventure movie, the second one is a bromance action-adventure movie. We’ll leave it at that.”

Some people will read this interview, and believe what Wan is saying about the making of Aquaman 2 being much smoother compared to what the media has been saying about it for months. Others will simply raise an eyebrow while reading those quotes about reshoots not always being a negative thing, and Wan saying the same thing about Heard’s smaller role as Walter Hamada, and remember that Warner Bros. also told us that Joss Whedon taking over as director of Justice League when Zack Snyder stepped away because of a family tragedy was a decision that Snyder himself approved of, and that very few changes would be made to the film by Whedon. Or how James Gunn told everyone The Flash was one of the best comic book movies he had ever seen, and that it would truly be worth the wait.

When it comes to rumors of Heard having very little screen time in Aquaman 2, I’ll just say what I’ve always said about this: Mera is the love of Aquaman’s life, and as shown in both comics and film, she is someone who is just as powerful and not to be trifled with as Aquaman himself. As far as I’m concerned, an Aquaman story without her, or one that barely acknowledges her importance, is as ridiculous as a Superman story without Lois Lane. It’s why I had hoped that all the news about reshoots would include Heard coming back to set so she would be given more scenes to work with, especially since her performance as Mera was one of the most delightful things about Aquaman.

As for the news about Aquaman 2 and its negative test screenings, people on Twitter pointed out that another recent film made by James Wan suffered from poor test screenings, only to end up getting a much better reaction from audiences and critics once it was released. That film was Malignant. (If you haven’t seen it, please know you need to fix that immediately.) And honestly, if Aquaman 2 even comes close to being as good and as delightfully batsh-t as Malignant, the film that gave us Gabriel breaking out of jail, killing his fellow inmates while doing so, and then killing and beating the sh-t out of a whole precinct full of cops? I will do so many damn cartwheels, because I will be a very happy man.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the final film in the DCEU, starring Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Topo, the drum-playing octopus from the first film, is scheduled to open in theaters December 20.