Director James Wan lights up when talk about his Aquaman star Jason Momoa . Back in 2018 , the two had an unexpected boxful government agency smash with the first film and are hoping to top even that with this month’sAquaman and the Lost Kingdom , out December 22.This time around , that kinship between director and hotshot seems to have only gotten stronger , as Momoa receive a “ taradiddle by ” quotation on the flick , after several of his trace about where his character would go made it into the movie .
speak with io9 last calendar month , Wan explained how Momoa make that recognition , express joy when asked about this signature , guttural “ Yeeeaahh’s”the actor is so well known for , and explain how digging deeper into the character ’s kinship with his chum was the key to make a sequel to the billion - dollar bill original . Readall that and morein our chat with dealership - making megahit theater director and producer , James Wan .
Germain Lussier , io9 : After the first film was such an improbably huge success , did you palpate imperativeness to come back for the sequel ? Was there ever a import where you were not snuff it to return ?
Jason Momoa stars in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.Image: Warner Bros.
James Wan : No , I did n’t feel the pressure or the motive to necessarily return , but I felt like I wanted to [ return ] because in the first picture , I only sort of scratch the open with the characters and I felt like I had at the very least , one more story to enjoin .
io9 : Right . That picture show rig the tracks for this one with where it leave Orm [ Patrick Wilson ] and Black Manta [ Yahya Abdul - Mateen II ] , among others . With those piece in place , what was the heavy thing to crack to sort of coalesce everything together into that story ?
Wan : I mean , obviously the crafty matter about sequels is how do you get around sequelitis ? How do you do up with new stuff [ audience ] have n’t seen before so it does n’t feel like we ’re just rehashing the first movie ? And in the end , what was important for us was that we just wanted to continue growing the characters and exploring where they would go now . It was fairly obvious at the end of the first moving picture how Arthur was going to start up in the 2d movie . And so it was about finding what his journey is . He hates his job as the Riley B King of Atlantis . No one mind to him because people still do n’t quite see him as one of them . And so he ’s share with prejudice from that existence . Meanwhile , he ’s endeavor to stop this wickedness from destroy the planet , so he gets to achieve out to his arch - antagonist , his half - pal from the first pic , and then endeavor to make for him together to try and stop this nifty evilness . That for us was the fun part . And the thing that we knew we wanted to crack was just the relationship between Arthur and Orm .
Wan directing his villain, Black Manta.Image: Warner Bros.
io9 : It ’s not every day that the lead of a movie catch a “ story by ” credit . So can you babble a little about Jason ’s contribution to the account to earn him that ?
Wan : Yeah . Jason , he ’s such a such a crowing filmmaking fan . When you get to sleep together him , you actually earn that he has aspirations to do more hooey behind the camera . He really wants to direct , he wants to write , he desire to produce and so it was enceinte in that regard . And what Jason at last convey to it is he knows how he want to toy his lineament . He know how he wants his grapheme to grow as well . He came in with a clustering of unlike estimate that we find were really coolheaded melodic theme . And it became our occupation to conjointly go , “ Okay , we want to say this story and how does Jason ’s story fit into that ? ” And luckily we were able-bodied to make it mold somewhat seamlessly .
To give you an example of what Jason institute to the table , Jason thought it would be fun to kind of see him … you know , he ’s a individual guy in the first movie . But in this one , it would be fun to kind of see him as a beginner . He ’s a first - time daddy . He ’s deal with the politics and the pressure of running an entire kingdom , right ? He ’s the king of Atlantis . Meanwhile , we intercut with him changing diapers at home . Doing the more domesticated clobber . And that ’s the kind of hooey that was really fun that he brought to the table . And we ’re like , “ That ’s not bad . We totally get it . And we decidedly need to go in that commission . ”
Wilson and Momoa.Image: Warner Bros.
io9 : Oh , that ’s awesome . Another matter I think he brings to the board is he ’s get this incredible exuberance . One of my favorite things that he does is he gives a bountiful old “ Yeeeaahh ” from prison term to time . We get one in the raw trailer . Is that something you script or is that something he just belt out on bent and make the moving-picture show ?
Wan : [ Laughs ] He pretty much does . You put Jason in whatever situation and he ’ll give you a lot of great hooey . He loves to improvise . People do n’t know that , but he loves to just come in up with clobber and we just let him do it . And from out of that , you have it off , like , if you get one or two nuggets , then it ’s gold . [ Still express mirth ]
io9 : That ’s awing . So you ’ve got this mega underwater sequel derive out only a year after James Cameron had his mega subaqueous sequel occur out . I ’m wondering , did Cameron crap and releasing an submerged film as you were making Aquaman 2 in any direction change , influence , or impact your motion-picture show ?
Our first look at Momoa as Aquaman in 2015.Image:Zack Snyder/X
Wan : No , I mean , ultimately , we ’re passably much dictated by the chronicle of the characters that we ’re telling , ripe ? The characters patently from my world … they work to different kinds of rules . It ’s more fantasy if you will . It ’s very much staying on the same course and course as what we had established in the first movie , which is it ’s kind of not afraid to be a small more Saturday break of day toon , you know ? We ’re not afraid to go there . And definitely , that put us apart from Avatar , right ? We ’re not trying to make the same eccentric , aesthetically the same eccentric , of films .
io9 : Now , I do n’t even know if you ’re aware of this , but the first image we ever go through of Jason as Aquaman was somethingZack Snyder released on Twitter that said “ Unite the Seven . ”And everybody was like , “ What are the seven ? ” This before is Justice League , even before Batman v Superman . But now it seems like this movie is do that with the reveal of the Seventh Kingdom . My head is , basically , were you even aware of that or did it ever get into your headland ?
Wan : Yeah , I imply , the seven kingdom , sweep the seven seas , it ’s a part of that cant , correct ? And we sort of touch upon that in the first motion picture . We let the cat out of the bag a footling bit about the Lost land in the first film and we just felt , from a fib perspective , it might be fun to discover and involve what that Seventh Kingdom is that ’s talked about , and how did they get lost ? And then we find out in this moving picture that they were mislay for a specific rationality . They were kind of scrubbed from Atlantean account for a specific reason . Part of the play is discovering what that is .
Wan and Momoa.Image: Warner Bros.
io9 : What I love about the first movie and I ’m excited to see more of in this one is just the pattern of these moving-picture show . It ’s beyond infinite . you could suppose anything and it tally in this earthly concern . So I ’m wonder , do you go in with any preconceived idea of things you require to pay court to or expend as inspiration , or does that kind of find organically ?
Wan : It ’s a small bit of everything . For me , the older fantasy kind of movies that I produce up with , the Sinbad films , classical Ray Harryhausen eccentric movies , stuff and nonsense that has a real sort of swashbuckling , high - sea , adventuresome purport to them , those picture were definitely the big stirring for me pull in these two Aquaman picture . And I just wanted to keep with that life . A lot of pic that I pull inspiration from are not from today . We really be given into the Silver Age of the comic book . So we pull a lot of material from the ‘ L and ‘ sixty from the comic Koran and from other pop cultural thing from that period .
io9 : As we mouth , we ’ve only seen two prevue for this picture show and fans hump to grind in and dissect things like that . Before passing , is there any figure of speech or line of negotiation that we ’ve consider in the selling that have in mind more , and the fans should think more about before the pic comes out ?
Wan : I ’m not sure . [ Chuckles ] You know , trailers for us film producer , for us directors , it ’s a flake of a dear - hate kinship . We always experience like the laggard give away a lot of our moving-picture show , give away a lot of our plot points . But we also understand that you kind of ask to give them away to get people excited about that . Coming from the repugnance world , it ’s always kind of problematical when I find that the preview pay away a draw of the scary located art object that I would love for the audience to discover without knowing anything about . So I do n’t necessarily intend that there ’s anything in these trailers that people need to read profoundly into . But I do call up that it set up what the movie is about .
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom opens December 22 .
Want more io9 word ? Check out when to expect the latestMarvel , Star Wars , andStar Trekreleases , what ’s next for theDC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to sleep with about the succeeding ofDoctor Who .
AquamanArthurAvatarDC UniverseJames CameronPatrick WilsonZack Snyder
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