Even with multiple release date delays and various reports of test screenings, it would seem that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is still undergoing changes heading up to its release. Officially, the sequel is set to hit theaters in December, and if no further sequels are made, the film could serve as the final installment of the DCEU. Many stars from the original Aquaman are joining Jason Momoa in the new movie, and among them is Patrick Wilson, who reprises his role as Orm, Arthur Curry’s Atlantean half-brother.
Wilson touched on the sequel in a new interview with THR to promote the release of his directorial debut film Insidious: The Red Door. The actor revealed that he participated in reshoots just a couple of weeks ago, confirming that there are still ongoing changes being made to the superhero sequel.
“Orm is awesome. I was with him last week,” as Wilson put it.
One reason that the film is getting so many changes in post-production could be that the pressure for Aquaman 2 to perform well only increases when each other DCEU-set film fails. Black Adam started the trend when it underperformed in theaters last year, and things didn’t get better when James Gunn and Peter Safran announced their plans to essentially reboot all of DC Studios’ movie plans from scratch. Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash would both go on to bomb at the box office, so even with the original Aquaman movie surpassing $1 billion worldwide, there’s likely great concern at Warner Bros. Discovery that the sequel may do no better than the other recent flops from DC.
Orm Returns in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Perhaps the powers that be are taking notes. Wilson previously suggested how Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has been developed with the idea of learning from previous DC movies what was working and what wasn’t. While the Aquaman sequel is being treated as a “standalone” movie outside of the DCU, Wilson has also praised DC for how they can make these kinds of projects stand on their own. In any case, the actor believes that the success of the original movie would suggest that Wan is onto something with how he approaches his comic book adaptations.
“So you take those things that you think people responded to, even if it was, ‘Oh my God, can you believe they did that?’ Yeah, we did that. Now we’re going to do more of that,” Wilson told Collider. “I think we found our niche. I think DC has found their way to understand where each movie can fit, even in a multiverse, which is so overused now, as a term. Clearly the movie went beyond a fanboy demographic, because it made whatever; billion dollars, right? So that affords you a freedom of, ‘You know what? Let’s keep it fun. Let’s make it fun.'”
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be released in movie theaters on Dec. 20, 2023.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
