'Aquaman 2' Had Not One. Not Two. But THREE Rounds Of Reshoots As Warner Bros Seems Determined To End The DCEU With A Hit
Chris Hyde. Getty Images."Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is in uncharted waters, with the next several weeks potentially setting its course, for good or for ill.
"The sequel to Warner Bros.’ 2018 DC movie is coming off a round of reshoots that occurred in New Zealand in mid-June and involved stars including Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson, according to multiple sources.
"This is the third round of reshoots for the movie, directed by James Wan. That is almost an unprecedented number, even for a movie of this scale.
"Lost Kingdom has faced several headwinds as it swims toward a Dec. 20 release date. It was postponed several times (it originally was due to bow in December 2022), and like its DC movie brother The Flash, its making has now spanned three regimes at Warners."
Silly me. I let myself get all excited about this news, which is now almost an entire year old:
Aaaaaaaand fast forward to today:
LOOK HOW GOOD BATFLECK LOOKS IN THAT SHOT. DAMN. They're so happy together. Alas.
Rather than piling on here, I'm going to see the silver lining in this whole situation. I feel like it's pretty much a sunk-cost fallacy scenario at this point for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Since this is the last hurrah for the Zack Snyder-driven DC Extended Universe of interconnected films, Warner Bros Discovery is making it as good as they possibly can.
The other reason I'm not panicking too much is as follows: Back in January, Momoa left a meeting at Warner Bros expressing love for the new regime, screaming with joy. Would appreciate a blog link click but the video below is what you need to see:
My interpretation of that? Momoa is either staying on as Aquaman, or playing the DC villain Lobo, which has been a popular fan casting for a long time. I feel like it's a show of good faith that this third round of reshoots were approved, despite the new creative direction that WBD's superhero franchises are ultimately headed to. It bodes well that Momoa is still on that good of terms with the studio — and gives me faith that Lost Kingdom won't be a dud.
I respect DC Studios co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran for yanking away any possible #RestoreTheSnyderVerse spin by cutting Ben Affleck's cameo. Per the THR report, though, there were more big-picture macro reasons for not featuring Batfleck — or Michael Keaton (!), as was initially ordered by ex-exec Walter Hamada.
Beyond the impending DC Universe reboot masterminded by Gunn, Lost Kingdom's release date has continually been pushed back. That alone rendered Keaton's cameo illogical, especially once he got pseudo-killed off in The Flash. Hamada wanted Keaton to play a Nick Fury-esque mentor role going forward, too. Ehh.
On top of all that, the COVID-induced backlog and back-breaking deadlines visual effects houses have been under was a major factor. Speaking of The Flash!
…Again, the spin off this report is positive based on how the last round of reshoots went with director James Wan:
"It is unclear how Safran’s transition shifted the movie’s fortunes, if at all. Insiders say that the filmmakers were in the dumps over the seemingly never-ending postproduction process and water-logged test scores. However, the skies may have cleared with the new reshoots. Gunn is said to have weighed in on the most recent cut, and the leadership approved a five-day shoot. Sources say the shoot went so well that Wan and company completed what they needed in only four."
Basically a shit show. I can't imagine what it must've been like for Wan, enduring three separate regimes and an 18-month postproduction runway, which will still drag on for another five months until its release on December 20. Let's get fucking PICTURE LOCK on this puppy STAT. Problem is, the VFX for the amazing underwater world of Atlantis will likely still need much of that time to be completed.
The CGI was damn good in the OG Aquaman. That visually stunning world building, a decent-enough story and Momoa's charisma carried that flick to over $1 billion at the box office. I'd like to see this era of DC movies end with a solid Aquaman story. We shall see if these exhaustive test screenings, narrative tinkering and power upheaval at WB will help the DCEU stick the landing on the heels of myriad box office disappointments from their 2023 comic book tentpole slate.
Even if Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom isn't good, I'm also not ready to give up on movies!!
Funny that this Aquaman 2 reshoot news broke today. Was just watching this earlier in the week…what would've been if Zack Snyder was allowed to finish his initial DC run.
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok