James Wan, a director who made his mark with horror, says there will be more elements of the horror genre in Aquaman 2.
Wan answered questions submitted by fans ahead of DC FanDome and replied “I would say yes” to the idea of more thrilling sequences like the first film’s dive into the Trench.
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Wan also said, “Just like the first movie had a touch of my horror sensibility in it in regards to the Trench sequence I would say that there will be a little bit of that in this next one.”
He added horror is part of him, “I think it’s something that is a big part of who I am and just naturally comes out in these kinds of films and especially in a movie like Aquaman where the story takes place in these underwater worlds which can be very scary,”.
He concluded saying he latches himself and his brand of “scary sauce” to his work, bringing out the resultant elements. “And so naturally my love for the horror genre just means that I latch myself to these scenes and give them a little bit more…uh…of my scary sauce on them,” Wan said.
His response was posted to Instagram (see it below):
Wan dabbles in action blockbusters but always finds his way back to horror. In the year since Aquaman, he brought us Swamp Thing on DC Universe. The show leaned hard into the comics’ genre overtones. He also worked as a producer for horror films Annabelle Comes Home, and The Curse La Llorona.
A full-blown horror movie surrounding The Trench and its creatures, also produced by Wan, is in development. Last we heard about the spinoff was an update from Aquaman screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick.
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It was still being worked on during the COVID lockdowns. “Some pieces” of The Trench are “still being worked out,” he wrote back in March on Twitter. He added it should fall canonically between Aquaman and Aquaman 2, “theoretically.”
Of Aquaman 2, McGoldrick, who is writing it, said the story will focus on Black Manta and the Silver Age but it doesn’t adapt any particular comic.
I can’t imagine they will merge the two scripts into one film the way Geoff Johns might fold his Green Lantern Corps movie into the Green Lantern HBO Max series. So far, there’s no indication of that with Aquaman 2 and The Trench.
Aquaman 2’s release is slated for December 2022 whereas The Trench does not have a definitive release date.