James Wan Prepares To Subvert Audience Expectations With ‘Aquaman’

Aquaman is normally thought of more as an Aryan-looking dude Hitler could be proud of and the butt of Family Guy jokes rather than Geoff Johns’ New 52 version of the character or the the tattooed warrior-king embodied by Jason Momoa. Director James Wan, out doing press for The Conjuring 2, spoke to CBR about his solo film with Momoa will take inspiration from Johns’ run and that he has privately settled on what the tone for the film would be.

“Yeah, definitely. I’m a big fan of what Geoff Johns did with his new take on “Aquaman,” with the New 52. I think for the first time, we get to see Aquaman as a superhero that definitely isn’t the butt of superhero jokes, right? I think that there’s something very exciting about that. I actually do think there’s something kind of fun, as well, to take a character where people don’t quite know what to expect from him, or rather the expectation of him is quite low. I always say, it’s very difficult when you’re tackling something like “Spider-Man” or “Batman” that has been done so many times before. Whereas, it’s actually really refreshing to take on something like “Aquaman,” that no one has really seen before in this context, and make it your own.”

With The Conjuring 2 making as much as the original as the box office and the billion-dollar grosser Furious 7 under his belt, Wan has appeared confident he can put his auteur stamp on this big-budget franchise starter. He said, “I already know the tone for the film that I want to make. I’ll just put it at that.”

Warner Bros. hired this guy for a reason and they would be wise to let him follow through on his vision without interference. Despite taking on the superhero synonymous with oceans and water, his anecdote about filming Conjuring 2 does not indicate he’s taking the element lightly.

 “We have a sequence in the movie where the set is flooded, it’s waterlogged, and there’s a lot of rain in this movie. Every time I’m out in the rain, and I’m in this sunken, flooded set, the only thing that’s going through my brain is, “Fuck, I have to put up with this for an entire movie. This is going to suck.” I’ll leave it at that — how’s that?”

The Conjuring 2 is in theaters now. Aquaman hits theaters on July 27, 2018.

SOURCE: CBR (via ComicBookMovie.com)

Sam Flynn

Sam Flynn

Sam is a writer and journalist whose passion for pop culture burns with the fire of a thousand suns and at least three LED lamps.