According to a new report from Devin Faraci over at Birth. Movies. Death., Seth Grahame-Smith, who recently dropped out as helmer on 2018’s The Flash due to “creative differences,” may not be the only DC film director who’s leaving the universe behind. Faraci claims that sources close to 2018’s Aquaman at Warner Bros. have informed him that director James Wan is “feeling a tremendous amount of trepidation” about the film.
Wan’s role as director of the film was confirmed in June 2015, when he was coming off of a string of hit movies, including Insidious, The Conjuring, Insidious: Chapter 2 and Furious 7, but if his reservations toward Aquaman continue, it’s unclear if he will brave the potential troubles or follow in similar footsteps as Grahame-Smith.
Regardless of whether or not Wan stays on board the project, he still has two WB movies due out in the next few months, The Conjuring 2, which he directed, and Lights Out, which he produced.
It’s clear that the folks over at DC are dealing with the fallout of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. By no means was the film a flop, but clearly it should have generated a bit more hope among WB and DC executives than it did, considering how much money they’re putting into their future superhero slate. Dawn of Justice was met with largely negative reviews from critics and mixed reception from fans; additionally, its box office numbers are big, as it has brought in over $850 million worldwide so far, but simply put, not big enough.
The aforementioned article states that Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder and WB have fought quite a bit on what the best direction for 2017’s Justice League Part One is, which is currently filming in London. Supposedly, all of these arguments may even cause Aquaman to be delayed “in an attempt to get the film right.”
For now, Aquaman is set for release on July 27th 2018, with Jason Momoa reprising his role as the title character and Amber Heard appearing as Mera.